


Believing is Seeing

by Splotcher



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-18
Updated: 2014-03-18
Packaged: 2018-01-15 23:44:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 46,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1323694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Splotcher/pseuds/Splotcher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, when you believe hard enough, something can come true. For better or worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thank you that read this for reading my first original story, I hope you guys like it, and I plan on writing more. When you do write your reviews, please do have constructive criticism, some compliments if you feel I deserve them, but please keep a reign on the flames, if you have a problem with what I write, please do tell me, just don't flame me and not tell me why. Again, thank you for taking the time to read my story; I do hope you enjoy it.
> 
> This story is old. I wrote it quite a long time ago, and in my journey to archive everything together, I have decided to out these here as well, from my brief stint as Dahk Wit on fictionpress. Much love friends, and enjoy!

"I've been walking around out here for four hours and they are nowhere. Are you even sure there were people out here?"

"Yes, I'm sure! We don't send people million dollar grants to do just what they please!"

"Could have fooled me. Look, there's nobody here. Either they ditched the research and ran off with your money or…I don't know. They just aren't here."

He huffed angrily. The Science of Natural Wonder Corporation doesn't take kindly to being ripped off. Thirty million dollars had been funneled into research of the old temple they stood in front of, and yet nothing looked like it had been touched in the last few months.

The man in front of him did nothing to help his mood. His total lack of concern about this injustice was driving him up the wall, and that was not good for his heart.

"Where can I find information about their whereabouts?"

"Try the police?" The man said lazily, chewing on a wood chip.

"I think I will. Good day sir." His last words were gritted through clenched teeth as he turned back towards the jeep that was resting in the shade, and inevitably, covered in the insects that inhabited the jungle.

"See you around, Harrick." The man called after him.

"Mr. Harrick." He hissed to himself as he climbed into the jeep, business suit and all, and turned the ignition. Once he got started down the bumpy road, he pulled out his phone and swiftly dialed the number. When the call was picked up, he said, "They aren't here. Doesn't look like its been touched for months. What? Yes, I'll hold."

He checked his watch and inwardly cursed. He would be late for a meeting.

Again.

^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*

A loud clanging noise brought me back abruptly. Mom must be cooking again.

It was six o'clock in the evening and I'd fallen asleep. Again. These days I really couldn't be bothered with staying awake. Dad was always running off, doing whatever he could for the Society of nothing and Whoop-de-doo. Mom rushed around in her frenzied keeper-of-the-house mode and couldn't be bothered to do anything but fit in her niche.

Really they weren't so bad. A little eccentric sometimes, but alright. Lots of kids are off a whole lot worse, so I suppose I don't have any room to complain. I bet my problem is that I don't have a hobby, or that my hobby is sleeping.

I rolled off the bed and smacked my knees on the floor. I held in a curse, which I knew my mother would hear if I uttered. The woman could be all the way down the block and she'd hear if I whispered it.

I got up and dusted myself off. We were staying in this little apartment in an even smaller town just south of the Mexican border, so Dad could do his thing. Judging by how late it was, he was going to be home after dinner, he and Mom would get into a fight about how he's not appreciating her change into womanhood, and how things were better when she was working.

Mom has some strange ideas about womanhood. See, I always thought that if you were a girl, you inevitably have womanhood. Apparently, this is not so. Womanhood is a clean home and loving relationship with a husband, a wonderful daughter that is in everyway worshipping her mother, and the perfect life.

Oops. Missed three out of three.

I smoothed out my blue shorts and then my yellow socks. My purple tank was a little too messy to smooth.

They clashed horribly, but they were my only clothes suited for the climate I was in. It was hot and sticky in the middle of January and all I'd packed were long pants and shirts. Oh well. Mom would get over it. I'm sure these clothes wouldn't shock her as much as the key lime green pants and the black and gold barred shirt I wore one day to school.

That was a dare, I swear.

I passed the mirror as I went to look out of my barred window. All of the windows in the places I lived were barred. I turned back to look at my reflection.

I looked like a mess. And that was an understatement. My dark, scraggly hair was sticking up on one side of my head, while the other lay plastered down with sweat. Where I had fallen asleep on my arm there was a red mark across my cheek. My brown eyes were bloodshot from just having woken up, and where there was not a red mark my skin was a pasty white. I'm not much of a sun person, or a tanning person. No freckles or any other thing blemished my skin. I almost wished they would, then I'd have color.

At sixteen I'm old enough to make my own decisions, but not to live on my own. But I'm also mistaken for being thirteen most of the time, because I'm nowhere near as tall as I should be, according to my Mom. I'm a little under five feet, and a little stocky, but not particularly.

I picked up the brush and patted down my sticking up hair. I can never seem to get my tangles out.

"Helena! Get down here now, your father will be home soon!" Mom called from across the narrow hall that held the doors to our rooms. I put down the brush and shuffled out of my room and down the hall.

"You look dreadful, did you fall asleep in your clothes again? I don't know what the doctor's thinking, nothing wrong with you, then why do you always fall asleep?" She yammered on.

Mom is always upbeat and happy (unless her womanhood is threatened.) and always pestering. She loves me to pieces, and I just can't seem to get away from her sometimes.

Apart from looking like a Stepford wife most of the time, Mom is very pretty. She's horrible at cooking, but she's pretty.

I sat down at our much too big table and looked at the plate of food that had been set in front of me.

"Now, wait till your father gets here." She rushed off to go put something one, probably to touch up her makeup or something. The food looked good. To the untrained eye it might be considered eatable.

She came in a couple minutes later and sat down across from me. Dad sat at the head of the table.

"So what do you feel about starting school in Kansas, honey?"

"There's no place like home." I said dully. I still wasn't entirely awake.

"Oh, you have your father's sense of humor."

Heaven forbid. Sometimes I think that man didn't have a funny bone in him.

The clock clicked monotone on it's shelf. Soon it was ten after. Fifteen. Thirty. Forty.

Fourty-eight after.

"I guess he won't be on time tonight, dear, eat your dinner." Mom sighed as she dug her fork into her food.

I didn't say anything and began eating. The food looked good, smelled alright, and tasted like mush. Oh well. At least she meant well. I think.

I ate about half a plate and then set my fork down. I didn't want to eat too much, I might have the unfortunate result of seeing it later.

"I'm finished."

"But you haven't eaten everything on your plate, darling."

"It's very filling. It was great though." I offered, hoping she'd take it.

She did.

"Well, then alright. Don't go to sleep though, darling, I worry you aren't staying awake enough."

"Okay mom." I walked back to my room. I combed out the rest of my hair and picked up a book to read.

Of course, I managed to get about six pages read of said book before I tossed it on the edge of the bed and went to sleep.

*^^*^^**^*^^**^^^**^*^*^

At first there was nothing. Just darkness, silence, and the meandering temple of the long forgotten civilization.

Then It broke away, It slid down the broken steps and hid Itself in the tall grass. There It waited.

It was nothing, really. Except It was an idea. It was a state of mind. It could be everything. But right now…

It was nothing.

Others followed It. They awoke to find one of the seals broken, and rushed to escape. They didn't like being nothing. It was an unfulfilling life.

It watched as they scattered off to the four winds. But It stayed.

And waited.


	2. Chapter 2: The first Step to being Real

"Helena! HELENA!"

My head shot up so fast that if it wasn't attached, it probably would have taken out the window. But it was attached, and the result was that I think I gave myself whiplash.

"GET UP HELENA!"

"I'm awake!" I lied as I fumbled to get off of my bed without falling.

I heard Mom running back and forth in the living room. For a moment I wondered what was wrong, and if Dad was okay. I admit a little tremor of fear caught me.

"We're going to go shopping! Your father is taking us! Hurry up and shower and get into something nice!"

Never mind.

I looked into my wardrobe and pulled out a pair of old jeans and a button up shirt that was being worn so much it looked like the buttons had been sewed on a minimum of five times.

I swiftly ran, tripped, shuffled, and groggily walked into the bathroom, and closed the door. I quickly shed the clothes I had worn to sleep last night, and jumped into the shower.

I washed my hair as well as I could, it had become a matted nest while I slept. Maybe I could convince Mom to let me cut it. But she was in love with it, and believed I should grow it to my ankles, though she didn't say as much.

I finished showering and toweled off, and quickly dressed. The shirt was blue, but it had been patched down the left side, where I had an unfortunate accident with a dog smaller than a rabbit.

Some people's dogs.

I rolled up the sleeves and held them in place with safety pins that I found in the cupboard. The bathroom was small, so it wasn't hard to find things.

I went back to my room and brutally brushed my hair so the tangles came out. It didn't hurt. My head had gotten harder with the years of hair brushing abuse.

When the hair was untangled and beginning to have a dull shine, I grabbed a rubber band and tied it in a ponytail. Better it be out of my eyes than in them, I believe.

I pulled on some bright green socks and slid into some of the oldest tennis shoes ever to grace the floor of this apartment since we moved in. They were comfortable and broken in, which was why I liked them so much.

I walked out into the living room. Mom was wearing a plaid dress with black shoes and a plaid purse.

Dad was there too. He was in a business suit, slightly red faced and mustached. His hair was thinning in a few places.

Dad had a heart attack a year ago. Stress related. Apparently some volcano exploded and covered up some ruins, and it freaked out his employers, so they freaked him out. And it got to be too much. Now, he runs, or says he does, and cuts back the drinks at nine and the cigars for the successes. He does look a bit better, but sometimes he seemed married to his job more than my Mom.

"Good morning sweetheart. Good heavens, don't you have better shirts?"

"Well, that's what we're going shopping for, Edwin." Mom said happily as she primped her hair.

"I have better shirts, but it's too hot." I said. He nodded.

"Of course it is. Well, come on dear, lets go shopping. We'll go to Englesburg."

Englesburg is a town two hours from Trabwick, which was where we were staying. It seemed that all the towns in a three hour radius had weird names, probably due to whatever person had discovered and settled the land. Or just settled.

We got into the car, a jeep of all cars, and started the nice long drive in ninety degree weather to Englesburg.

Mom and Dad were extraordinarily civil to one another, considering he did miss dinner last night. This shopping trip must be his way of making peace.

Not bad. Go for the weak spot Pop. She can't stay mad if you voluntarily offer shopping.

My eyes started to get tired. My eyelids started to droop. There was no music to listen too, and Mom and Dad were talking in the front, about who knows what. I shifted into the seat a bit and tried to take a little nap.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*

It scrunched tightly into a little ball. It had nothing else to do. Nowhere else to go.

Nothing to do but wait.

But for what, It did not know.

Not yet anyway.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*

My Mom poked me awake a couple of hours later and dragged me off into the streets, decorated in brightly colored paper, with people laughing as they walked past. Everyone seemed so happy. I wondered why. Then I knew.

They didn't have to shop with my mother. They were laughing out of sheer relief.

"Those kids at Kansas will be so jealous, they won't be able to find stuff like this." She was obviously very happy. Her triumph in finding the most hideous skirt in all existence overwhelmed everyone in a twenty foot radius. Which was just me.

Dad was just smiling and nodding, paying absolutely no attention to the scene in front of him. After all, he'd already saved himself from Mom's wrath. He had no wish to jeopardize it now.

After several hours of being dragged though some good stores and some bad ones, I managed to stave off the torrent of truly evil clothing like the frilly gold skirt and the polka dotted green and purple shirt with horizontal bars. What I did have was three bags full of solid color pants and a couple plaid skirts, with several shirts with flowers on them, perfectly designed to flatter the womanly figure, as mother put it, which meant it had a tee shirt collar and went past my hips.

Really they weren't bad. Some of them were actually nice, but some I vow to only wear around the house.

After we ate late lunch at an Italian restaurant, which served Mexican food, the reason of which will continue to boggle me, we got back into the jeep. I shoved the bags onto the floor and shifted to get comfortable for the nap back.

"We have to stop real quick at a site of mine. Do you mind, dear?"

"Of course not! Honey, won't it be exciting to see your father's work?" Mom said happily. I don't think anyone could burst her happy bubble. She had two bags of new clothes and was perfectly content with life.

"Great. How far is it?"

"Half an hour. Don't go to sleep, we'll be there in no time."

I resisted the urge to tell him the time would go faster if I napped. But really, I nap far too much already. It was a miracle my grades have never suffered from it.

Since my parents do move quite a bit because of Dad's work, I sometimes take a few classes home school. If I pass the tests handed to me, I pass the year. I never really had to struggle with them. But then again, Mom makes me study for several straight days before the tests, so that may be it.

The half hour passed faster than I expected. I had spent most of the time staring out the window.

We stopped in the middle of thick jungle. Sure, everything but several roads and about three miles around the cities and towns were crawling with forest, but it was still pretty impressive to see the trees just outside the car.

"Everybody out!" Mom said happily, still on her cloud.

I clambered out of the car and looked around. My eyes fell on a massive old ruin. It was covered in plant life, but it was still very impressive.

Dad was talking to Mom about the ruin, trying to get some ideas on how to get more people to come. Apparently, the last researchers had up and left, as he had informed my Mom. She was listening carefully. After all, she did use to be a real estate agent.

Though it didn't look like anyone would buy this thing.

I walked forward through the plants and began looking at it from different angles. It looked as if someone had sealed the entrance closed with a rock. But parts of the rock had become weathered, and a big chunk had fallen off.

I felt a sharp pain as my shoe landed on something big. The soles were getting thin. I lifted the foot back up and saw an odd, perfectly round black marble.

I picked it up and let it balance on my palm. Despite being in the hot sun, it felt oddly cool. It was the size of a shooter, and it must have knocked quite a few marbles this way and that in its day.

"What did you find honey?" Dad was peering over my shoulder. I jumped a little, strangely entranced for some reason.

"It's a marble." I said as I held it up for him to see better.

He squinted at it, which is funny to watch, because one side of his mustache goes up when he does that.

"Must have been left here by some of the researchers."

"Do you want it?" I asked.

"No, you keep it, Honey. Souvenir. Let's go back to the house, alright?"

"Okay." I pocketed the marble and followed him back to the jeep. He seemed happy with whatever idea Mom had given him, so when we got back into the jeep, it wasn't surprising that he turned on the radio and managed to catch some music that we all understood.

I smiled and leaned my head back. My eyelids closed slowly, and I drifted back to sleep.

I woke up suddenly two minutes from home.

What a strange dream. I was sitting at a table with a test in front of me, but none of the questions made sense. All of them seemed to have one major theme.

What do I believe in?

One question asked me if I believed in magic, another in dragons, one about werewolves, another about talking pasta, for a reason I can't begin to fathom.

And then another set of question asked me what I was willing to try to believe in.

Would I try to believe in talking horses? Amazing treasure? Flying pigs?

I didn't remember all of the dream. I sense that if I had started the test instead of staring at it and wondering why I didn't study, I might get an idea about why I was taking the test, and why I seemed to be stuck in the medieval times.

"Honey? Oh, you're awake. Okay, take your stuff up to your room, and do your homework." Mom said cheerfully as she took her bags inside. I grabbed mine and followed after almost taking a nose dive into the pavement when I tried getting out of the jeep. I really needed to wake up more before I got up to walk.

I went back to my room and put my clothes in a corner. I picked up my homework and scanned it. It was done; I had finished it a few nights ago. I always try to finish my homework as fast as possible, that way I have time for the things I want to do.

Which always seems to involve a pillow.

I plucked up the book I tried to read last night. I know why it never seems to be interesting enough to read through. I've read it through six times already.

It's an old book, about a girl, who needs to learn some self confidence and get magically transported to a world where she learns things that will one day teach her about the world.

Alice in Wonderland. It's one of my favorite books. I love to read about the characters and all the adventures she keeps having. Though, truth be told, it's kind of hard to read, a little stuffy.

I also like other books, some psychology books, because of some morbid fascination. I've been trying to pin my parents to one certain disability. I like true crime with my dragons and unicorns, and I like to read the odd autobiography. I also like to read war epics, and some other books, not all of them the line by line writing. I'm talking comics, the kind with superheroes and villains where the only hope lies on the shoulders of the lone man, and even though his superhero life goes great, his social life sucks, and vice versa.

But lately, my books have been sparse. A few months ago, when I ran out of books to read, I started sleeping more and more often.

And I already slept a good amount already. I think books were the only thing that kept me awake for those hours.

I put the book down and stretched out on the bed, pulling the black marble out of my pocket as I did so, and putting it near my eyes. It's blackness seemed to be through and through, and it seemed to be made of black glass, which struck me as odd. Most marbles that look black are actually a dark purple or green.

I closed my hand around it and curled up into a ball. Maybe I'd have that weird dream again. Then I could go look for a teacher.

Maybe it would end up being my Aunt Edna. Or worse, it could be my Mom. Now that would be embarrassing…

^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^

Such a strange new place.

And such new, wonderful ideas.

This youth's head was full of them. And in her dreams, she believed. It was just a matter of getting her to believe when she awoke, then It could move like a true being, not a shadow of a memory.

And it was far easier to whisper to her, now that she held It in her hand. She dreamed, and It asked her to believe, hoping against hope that it would be enough to Be.

In her dream It watched. It watched as she looked over the questions It whispered, wonderingly listening.

For as long as she wondered, It could see the things she believed in her dreams. Cats that spoke, Shining Knights in armor, psychics, monsters good and bad, amazing puzzles, theories, scientific explanations, people, so many strange things. Wondrous.

As It watched, It could feel itself being shaped. To a form she would most likely understand and believe in.

Soon, if all went well, It would be alive.

Alive.


	3. Chapter 3: First Meetings Are Less Than Appreciated

I woke up suddenly and sat up in bed fast.

It was that stupid dream. Again.

Every single time I slept, up popped this dream. Every single time it just got weirder and weirder. The second time I dreamed it, a giant marble was watching me take the test. And every time after that, something began to form in the marble, like those old movies where the genie slowly shows up in the gem or something, but something tell me that it's no genie.

Maybe I should cut back on the movies as well as the sleep. This can't be healthy.

Especially for the sixth night in a row. And I sleep a good bit in between.

I blinked and rubbed the sleepiness from my eyes, and picked the salt specs that always show up at the edge of my eyes.

My room was still dark, but my eyes were quick to adjust. There were a stack of boxes about to block the door. We'd be moving out soon, and going back to the states. My clothes were all thrown into a pile, ready to take up all but one box. Into that one would go the books I brought and any souvenirs, like the marble whose twin decides to violate my dream world.

Or maybe it was the marble itself. It seemed to be less glassy these days.

No, that was nothing. Just my imagination.

I got out of bed. I was wearing my usually clashing blue shorts and a white T-shirt I didn't know I had until I dug into a pile of clothes that hadn't been washed in a week. Mom kept telling me to put my clothes in the laundry room that we didn't exactly have instead of leaving them on the floor with my clean clothes, which should be packed away anyway.

I informed her there was no room to put my clean clothes. The floor was a good a place as any.

Which got her all teary eyed when she realized that this house (despite it being an apartment) was not big enough for all of us to live in, and somewhere she had done wrong.

Which made me feel bad for even suggesting it, which was exactly what she was trying to do anyway.

But luckily, we would be moving to Kansas, because Dad had things to do, and wanted to travel a lot more than being with a family allowed. So, he would leave Mom and I in the house he bought in Kansas, and let me go to public school for once.

As if I had argued. I like people well enough, but being crowded by them makes me nervous. I remember, one time I went to a class in a school in Idaho, and when the teacher was gone, all the kids crowded me and started asking questions and invading my personal space.

I started panicking, not because they were all looking at me, but because it was crowded and hot and I felt trapped. I retaliated by knocking several kids down in an attempted run to get to the bathroom so I could revisit my breakfast in private. I ended up only making it to the janitor's trashcan a few steps out of the classroom.

Of course, it could be contributed to the fact that I had to eat all of my breakfast as celebration of my first day at middle school. Mom made eggs and toast and burnt the orange juice.

Anyway, Mom had to come to school and drag me away, and that was the last time I went to that school for learning. Three months later we packed up and went to Alaska, to check out some old settlements. Since then I've been at several schools, and I've never had such a bad problem as at middle school, but sometimes I still get a little nervous.

I looked out my window. The heat was sweltering, my shirt was sticking to my back. But outside it looked almost serene.

One of the world's most deceptive pictures. It only looks serene until you walk outside and realize it's actually hotter than the inside.

The moon was big and full, almost looking like it was going to fall out of the sky and bounce down the street.

Now that would be a sight.

I rubbed my shoulder and walked out of my room to get a drink from the kitchen. I passed by Mom and Dad's room. There were loud snores erupting from behind the closed door.

I don't know how Dad stands being next to her when she's like that. For someone who considers herself a dainty flower, she sure doesn't sound like one.

I passed the room and went to the kitchen and took out a paper cup from the dispenser. I went to the fridge and pulled out a jug of water. I poured myself a cup, then looked at the icy drops on the outside of the jug and then down at the sweat soaked shirt I was wearing.

Things that live in the fridge have a better life than I do.

I put the jug back into the fridge, then, as an afterthought, stuck my head into the cool vapor flowing out of the fridge. It felt wonderful.

"Honey, what are you doing with your head in the fridge?" Mom asked sleepily behind me.

"It feels nice, what are you doing up—" I choked on my water as I turned while taking a sip to face my mother. Her hair was up in curlers, and it looked like she had horns. And slugs stuck in her hair.

When my eyes picked up what they were, I shook my head and closed the door.

"Are you laughing at me?" She growled, which considering her current looks, made it sound about as dangerous as it was.

Talk about a question that should never be answered truthfully. I mean, answering a question like that was asking to be put six feet under.

"No, I was just surprised. My eyes play tricks on me at night, that's all."

"You should go back to sleep honey."

"I just wanted to get a drink." I said, half raising my cup.

"Alright. Just go to be soon." She trundled off, probably forgetting what she got up for.

I gulped down the water fast. I threw the cup into the trash and walked back to my room. Loud snores came from the room of my parents, and I knew Mom had already fallen back asleep.

Delicate flower. Right.

I reached my room, squeezed past the boxes and lay down on the bed, the blankets all crumpled at the foot of the bed.

I reached my hand under the pillow and pulled out the marble. I was beginning to feel a little superstitious, with the dreams and all. But then again, the same thing started happening when Mom had just quit her job and had tried cooking for the first time in about twelve years.

And they were just dreams. Nothing big.

Even with the heat, I didn't find it all that hard to sleep. And now I was slipping off again.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Almost done.

Almost alive.

He was almost alive!

He…yes, he. No longer It. He would need a name soon enough. Perhaps she would give it, if she felt so inclined.

Strange…he had a name before…he can't remember it anymore.

But that was no longer of consequence.

Because the dream was over. He now had the belief in place, and he could appear to her in her waking.

And that was exactly what he planned to do.

I woke up to ringing. The bell had ringed on my test, it was over. I don't remember if I finished it. I might have gotten and F. I don't care. It was getting tired of it. Every time I tried to get up to find a teacher or something, I found no doors. It was really irritating.

I got up on my elbows and searched for the clock whose alarm I never use. I found it on the ground, little red numbers displaying the time: 4:30 am.

I groaned slightly and considering getting out of bed, but I didn't have anything to do. Mom and Dad wouldn't be up for another hour, so watching the television that makes horrible screechy noises was not an option.

Though, if they could both sleep through Mom, they should sleep through that. But it was like the cussing thing. Mom would hear.

I flopped back down on the bed for a second. Then I sat straight up, intending to go to the kitchen for another glass of water.

But I was stopped by the furry rock I knocked my head against.

"Oww!" I hissed to myself, rubbing my forehead, not quite understanding what happened.

Then I realized that something was floating, floating in the air where my forehead had impacted.

I stared, and my mouth slowly went dry. I fumbled with the wall next to my bed, not remembering the light switch was by the door. My hand went too far, and I slipped off the bed and onto the floor, still trying to keep my eye on the floating mass in front of me.

I stumbled up and backed up and slapped the wall next to the door, and a couple of seconds of searching found the switch. I gripped the switch for a second, pausing, trying to decide if I wanted to see it in the light or not, than switched it on.

It was…a floating cat. In a blue waistcoat. With glasses. And it was rubbing its head.

I should not have eaten the casserole.

"I see you are awake, this is most good. We shall be good partners."

It…talked.

It talked.

Oh crap.

"I must say though, I did not expect to be injured…why are you staring like that?"

My hand was beginning to shake. There was a talking, floating cat in my room.

"Are you alright?" It began to move forward.

And I did what I believe every sixteen year old that has an impossible hallucination floating towards them would do.

I screamed.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^^*^**^*^^*^*^**^

At first she didn't know what she had woken up for. Then another scream ripped through the house.

She threw off the blankets with such force that she hit Edwin in the face with the covers. She immediately realized it was sweltering, but shoved that off in favor of the screaming girl down the hall.

She threw open the door, leaving a hole in the wall when the doorstop failed to catch the speeding door, and barreled down the hall as fast as her nightshirt would allow her.

The light was on in her daughter's room, and she scattered the cardboard boxes in a manner that any football player would be proud of.

Helena was standing at the light switch, about to open her mouth to scream again, looking straight ahead.

"Helena!" She grabbed the girl's shoulders, breaking the girl's trance. Confusion, then a lost expression passed her face. "Helena! Are you all right?!"

"Mom?" Helena looked dazed, then turned suddenly to where she had been looking.

"What is it?" She asked, hushed by her daughter's strange behavior.

"It's gone." Was relief or something else in the tone of her voice? She couldn't tell.

"What is? Honey, you were screaming." She looked down in concern, gripping her daughter's shoulders.

"There was…I swear I saw…"

"What's going on?" Asked Edwin as he stuck his head in the door. He seemed perturbed, to say the least.

"I thought I saw something." Helena seemed to have shaken off whatever had caused her to stare off and make those strange comments.

"I think you may have been sleepwalking. You were standing next to the light switch and screaming, and you stopped when I grabbed you, you must have woken up." She said, though part of her whispered that something else was going on.

"Yeah, that must have been it…" The daughter looked around, as if expecting her phantom to jump out at her.

"Well, we might as well start packing." Edwin said as walked back into the hall. "We won't get any sleep after this excitement."

She wanted to turn around and glare at him, but Helena did seem alright, back to her old self.

"Sorry I woke you up, Mom."

"Oh darling, you know I would come running if you screamed, everytime." She said a little absently, still wondering about what had scared her. "Gp ahead and get dressed and start packing like your father says."

"Alright."

She left Helena in her room, slowly picking up clothes and shoving them into boxes.

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The first contact was less than helpful. And he was to blame. He had the form, but the way he appeared had less than impressed her.

He would have to study it more. She obviously was afraid. There could be so many reasons why.

And he'd have to be more careful. She was bigger than he was, and already had proved that she could hurt him.

Very well in fact—he was not immune to headaches.

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I packed the last piece of clothing into the boxes Mom had scattered everywhere. It was the last thing I had to pack, and thankful of it. I've been living in this close space too long, and I've finally gone loopy.

Almost seven hours after my walking nightmare, I think literally, I was more than happy to be done and go out to the kitchen for some chow.

As I got up, I saw the marble.

It was sitting in the middle of the bed. I picked it up and examined it.

It was no longer glassy, not like a marble. It looked like there was a depth to it that I couldn't see into.

And it was still as cool as it was the day I found it. But there was something underneath the surface of that glass, and I suddenly realized (how, I do not know) that if my little hallucination came from anywhere, it came from it.

I dropped the marble fast. I didn't need to be thinking about that.

Talking cats. It was something out of a fantasy book. The kind kids believe in.

I'm way too old to believe in those sort of things. In my dreams, maybe.

"Helena! Come out and eat!"

Yes, food would be best. I walked towards the door almost mechanically. And as for the marble…

It would be just fine on the bed. Even after I leave.

 

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	4. Chapter 4: First day of School

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The smell of eggs and toast hung in the air is I opened my eyes. I sat up slowly, wondering if Mom cooked or went for fast food.

Let it be fast food.

I yawned and threw off the blanket. In Kansas, it's still pretty cold, for being January. And the heat in our new house wasn't working right. It didn't quite reach my room in the attic.

The house was an old two story with an attic and basement. The outside was pale green, which when it got to be summer, Dad had vowed to paint it a different color.

Which also meant that it would stay green until the paint peeled off and the house turned white. Or whatever color it had been a few years ago.

The first floor had a nice dining room and kitchen with living room and a study for Dad. Upstairs were a couple bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Above that was the spacious attic I immediately claimed as home territory. I would have taken the basement, but it was full of the previous owners' stuff. Rusty bikes, etcetera, etcetera.

The attic started out as dusty, nasty, and cockroach ridden. There was a window on the far wall that looked like it hadn't been cleaned since it had been put in. When it finally sank in for my Mom that I wanted it to be my room, she visited her extreme cleaning wrath upon it.

Many good roaches died that day.

Now it had a dresser, left behind by previous owners yet again, a nice fluffy bed, and a bookcase that was a quarter full of books. And to top it off, there was already a closet I could use to hang up my clothes. It was perfect.

I got up, my head not even close to brushing the sloped ceiling. I yelped when my feet touched the cold floor. I'd have to ask for some rugs to put up here.

My pajamas of choice, sweatpants and a long purple shirt with some college logo on it, hung a little loosely off of me as I pulled some clothes from the closet( a red plaid calf-length skirt and a white short sleeved shirt, with three little buttons at the top) and walked downstairs to get a shower.

The stairs creaked and complained at me. I ignored them. They always creak when somebody's walking on them.

I hurried and took my shower and dressed myself, then took my brush and brushed it out, and getting the brush tangled in my hair when I started to stifle a yawn. It took me two minutes to untangle it.

When I was done, I walked downstairs, hand on the rail to stop me from falling in case I was still half asleep. Sometimes I can't tell until it's too late and I have a bruise on some part of me.

"Hey Mom." I greeted as I walked into the kitchen and sat down. She put down a plate of eggs and toast in front of me. She always fixed eggs and toast my first day of school.

"Hey honey, you look so good this morning! Your father already left for work. Eat up, you need to have a nice strong brain for class this morning!"

Her brightness was starting to blind me. I dug my fork into the food, and put it into my mouth.

Drat, no fast food.

"I see you went with the skirt, that's good. It pays to have a bit of sophistication." She commented as she threw the rest of the eggs in the frying pan in the trash. Apparently she made too much, or realized what she had done and wasn't going to inflict it on herself.

I finished a quarter plate and bit into the toast. The toast was good, mom can make toast.

"Is that all you want to eat, honey?"

"I don't feel very hungry." I said, chewing on my last bite of toast.

"Don't talk with your mouth full. Oh, you don't have to be nervous, honey, the kids will love you. I'm sure of it. After all, you are a wonderful person." She said supportively.

I nodded, trying to hide a smile. "Thanks Mom."

"Oh!" She caught sight of the clock we have on the counter until someone hangs it up. "We're going to be late! Grab your bag, honey."

I picked up my bag and an old baggy brown jacket from the living room on the way out, and got into the car with my mother. She drove me through the streets lined with some snow, to this two story, sprawling building that had groups of kids standing in the snow, some looking like they had frozen in place.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Mom put her hand on my shoulder. I flashed her a little smile and opened the door.

"I'll be fine. Have a good day."

"You too honey." I slammed the door shut after myself.

I watched her leave in the little Oldsmobile Dad bought cheap, then turned to the school. I couldn't she the name of it anywhere, so I looked around for a door. I saw one passed a bunch of guys with matching shirts. Football players, I think. I shrugged and walked towards it.

My old tennis shoes crunched the light layer of snow as I walked. It was way too cold for a skirt, I should have worn jeans.

I passed the group and tried the door. It was locked. I glared at the lock as if it would magically open, but didn't have any such luck.

"That door's locked."

Great assumption, genius. I turned to look at a scarred elbow. I looked up, and a guy was looking down at me. He was cute, but I wasn't feeling any need to get all buttery kneed.

"Yeah, I figured that out, for myself, is there one open around here?" I asked, not unkindly, because I learned if you come to schools with a huge attitude problem, it's hard to get any help.

"The one by the Feller twins," he pointed to a pair of brown haired boys joking with a couple of girls, who were obviously flirting, "is usually open. You new here?"

"Yeah. I just got here a week ago. I'm trying to find the office to pick up my schedule."

"It's just across the hall from the Counselor's office just inside those doors," He pointed to the doors again.

"Ok. Thank a lot." I smiled at him and walked towards him. I heard his buddies joking around with him about the encounter, but I ignored it.

I passed some girls that stared at me openly, but I ignored them too. There are people like that in every school.

I went past the Feller Twins and tried the door, which was unlocked, and walked in.

I wiped my tennis shoes on the floor and started looking at the little plates on top of doors. I found the Counselor first. I followed the boy's directions. The office was unlocked and I walked into a brightly lighted room. I had to blink a few times to adjust my eyes.

I found myself face to face with a friendly, wrinkled face.

"Ah, either a trouble maker or fresh meat."

My eyes slightly widened at that. She gave me a toothy grin and laughed in my face. Her breath smelled like tobacco and raw fish and I felt my stomach churn.

"Mrs. James, stop messing with those kids." Some man boomed from a desk. She rolled her eyes and lightly pushed me to the side so she could leave. I stared after her as she went down the hall.

"You'll have to excuse her, she's got an interesting sense of humor. It's some sort English hippy thing, or so I'm told by a number of students. What can I do for you, Miss?"

I turned back and was very surprised to see a very large man sitting behind the desk. He looked like he could pick up the desk and spin it on one finger. He was wearing slacks and a long sleeved button up shirt. He was twirling a pen between his dark fingers and looked like he was laughing.

I walked towards the desk and handed him a form a dug out of my backpack.

"Helena Harrick. Sixteen years old, sophomore. Legal guardians Patricia and Edwin Harrick?" He looked at me to confirm. I nodded. He turned over to the filing cabinet and searched through the 'H' section, then pulled out a file that had nothing in it except a slip of paper.

"Since you came in late, we had to stick you in whatever classes were left. As it happens, you now have a Home Education class, the basic curriculum, Math, Science, English, History, a Reading class, sorry, it's remedial, but there was no other place to put you, and Study Hall." He read off the classes, then turned to the copier beside his desk and made a copy.

A remedial class? That stunk, but at least it was reading. It could have been worse, I could have been stuck in a black hole of remedial English or something.

"Here we go. You'd better hop over to the counselor, he'll go over the rules with you. If you need anything else, my name is Mr. Rhodes, and I usually hang out here." He held out my schedule and a hand. I shook the hand and took the schedule. He waved me out.

I left the office with the schedule in hand and walked across the hall. Inside the Counselor's door, the office was deserted. I stood by the door and wondered if I shouldn't go to my first class. If I could find it.

A loud ring went off, eerily reminding me of a week or so ago. I shook it off. The marble was back in Trabwick. No need to worry.

As suddenly as the ring stopped, the hall was packed with kids, all glad to be inside, but groaning the approach of classes. I had to stay against the wall as the kids jostled past. I felt a little nervous, but they weren't doing it intentionally, so I let it pass.

As the crowd thinned out and found their classes, a small man hurried into the building and saw me.

"Hello? Can I help you?"

"I'm here to see the counselor."

"Oh, I am he, come in." He went into his office and sat behind the desk, tossing his briefcase on the floor in a haphazard way. "I suppose you're here to learn the rules. Here's a guidebook."

He handed me a thirty page stack. "Ignorance is no excuse in this school. Please make sure to read that. I trust you have your schedule?"

I nodded.

"Good. Well, other than say 'welcome to Lakegate High School.' Hurry and get to your first class." He dismissed me by turning to mess with papers.

I walked out of his office thinking about how many kids must avoid him. He wasn't a very good counselor.

I looked at the schedule, and realized I didn't know where the rooms were. Well, that was peachy.

I spied a girl in pigtails in blue jeans and one of those ripped tees, and wondered how she could wear that in this kind of weather.

"Excuse me!" I caught her before she went down a hall. "Can you tell me where Mr. Redder's class is? His math class?"

"I know where his class is, I'm going there, alright? Geez, don't be such a tardy police, I'm sorry I'm late, Okay?" She snapped and kept walking. I stopped for a minute and stared.

Well, that was the first time I was called a tardy police.

I started following her, but at a distance. She did, after all, say she knew where she was going.

"Why are you following me?" She turned and snarled. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Yes." I said truthfully.

"Then why are you doing it?"

"I'm new and I can't find Mr. Redder's math class." I said, stopping a few feet from her.

"Oh." She deflated instantly. "Sorry."

"That's okay. Can you take me?"

"Sure, why not. Come on." She waved me forward. I was getting a little annoyed at people waving at me.

"Um, do you know where these other classes are?" I handed her my schedule.

She quickly examined it and gave it back. "Yeah, I got friends in all these classes, I'll pass you off to them."

"Thanks."

The rest of school passed pretty uneventfully. Get introduced to the class. Hi Helena. Tell a little about yourself Helena. I'm sixteen, was living out of the states before I came here. Does that make you foreign? No, no it does not.

Math was boring, I'm not good at it, and no one else seemed to be either. Mr. Redder kept trying though. Got to admire a man with that kind of determination, especially where high school kids are involved.

English came after Math, with a slightly annoyed young man that gave us all a copy of a Greek Mythologies book, and told us straight out that we were going to learn about greek myths whether we wanted to or not. Apparently they were just starting a new section.

History after that, with an energetic woman. I would say the sixties were kind to her, because she could be a little incoherent at time, and go off on rants that made no sense.

Biology, which was the only science class I could get into, was taught by a grey haired man who didn't seem to want to make any physical contact with students, clapping his hand on a shoulder or guiding hands with his own. And he wore gloves to make sure he couldn't touch.

Study Hall, as I understood it, was taught by several teachers, all taking turns. I was one of five kids, the others having problems finishing their work unless watched.

Then came lunch, and I ate a few chairs away from everyone else. I wasn't all that friendly with anyone yet.

Home Economics was nothing short of a disaster, when a guy's pet rat got into the flour at my station, and in the confusion that followed, the flour bag exploded and covered the room.

Remedial Reading was filled with kids poring over third grade books, and I felt seriously out of place, which I was. I stayed in the back and read my myths the entire time.

Now I was back home and going through the fridge in search of edible food. No such luck, we just got here, and there was nothing in the fridge.

I walked up the stairs to my room and left my bag against the wall behind the door.

"Honey, did you find my gift?" Mom called from her room downstairs.

"You got me a gift?" I called down.

"It's on your bed! I figured the first day of school, you should have something to remember it! It's really not new, though." She yelled back up.

I walked over to my bed, and saw the little strip of braided cloth.

It was a necklace of some kind, the braided cloth making a choker.

I picked it up and realized it was much heavier than cloth should be. I held it up to look at the charm—

Oh no.

"You must have left it behind on your bed accidentally, and I knew you liked it, so I made a necklace out of it." Mom said behind me, having managed to climb the stairs with little noise.

"It's great." I managed to get out. "Thank you very much Mom."

"Your welcome sweety. Get your homework done!" She left the room and went back down the stairs.

I held the necklace out at arm's length. The black marble seemed to suck in the light shining from the window.

I quickly put it down on the dresser. If it was hallucinogenic, it probably would have affected Mom, and she didn't seem any different. But that didn't mean I wanted to wear it.

And if it was just a marble, why did I keep getting the creepy feeling it was watching me?


	5. Chapter 5: Boston

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I spent most of my afternoon concentrating, or trying to concentrate, on my math. I was working ahead so I would get part of my mind off the fact that there was a marble I had tried to get rid of sitting innocently on my desk.

Thanks, ma. The one time you take genuine interest in stuff in my room, it blows up in my face.

I seriously considered throwing it away, but I was afraid that Mom would find it, or worse, suddenly develop a sixth sense about these things.

She already has too many senses, she doesn't need another one.

I bent my head back over my book, and started work on some function problems. I couldn't really concentrate and just wrote something down, knowing it wasn't the right answer.

I tapped my pencil against the book a couple of times, then threw it down.

This was stupid! I am afraid of a little marble! It's an inanimate piece of glass, it can't hurt me.

"Math being a pain in the arse?" A very familiar voice asked. I turned my head slowly.

It was back.

I immediately grabbed my pillow and hurled it in his direction.

"Hey! Chill, will ya? I'm not going to hurt you!" It ducked under the flying pillow. It hit the wall above the dresser and flopped to the floor.

"What are you?! I swear if you come any closer I'll scream!" I said a little hysterically.

"Don't scream. You hurt my ears last time." It got up from its sitting position and stretched, taking the time to smooth out its coat. "I am everything you believe made 'real'."

"What?" I grabbed my math book and held it up in case it decided to come closer.

"Look, can you put down the book and we can talk like civil people?"

"I like the math book."

"Un hunh…" He(I could tell it was male from the way it moved and talked.) rose an eyebrow, which was strange, because I didn't think cats had eyebrows to speak of. "Fine, let's attack it from this angle. Are you familiar with the theory that when enough people believe in something, their joined powers of belief actually cause that thing to be?"

"Yeah…I don't remember where that came from, but I know what you're talking about." I lowered my book a little.

"Well, what you're experiencing this very second is a sort of…extreme version of that."

"This isn't a hallucination?"

"Would you believe me if I said no?"

"No. That's what all hallucinations say."

"You need to cut down on whatever it is you've been eating, it's making you crazy."

"A hallucination is telling me I'm crazy, great, thanks." I said sarcastically, finally dropping the book to the bed.

"Glad to see we're not about to injure each other. Anyway, back to my explanation…where was I?"

"Extreme version of crazy belief system."

"Thank you. Anyway, I and my people, we are the extreme products of this belief. As such, we can latch ourselves onto people with great intellectual, imaginative, whatever mental strength, and we can become real, as we are not beforehand. By way of molding ourselves to their beliefs, whether religious, fantasy, or elsewise. You follow me?"

"No."

"That's alright, I didn't expect you to right away. But the major thing right now is that I'm a true living being, bound to you, as I am using you to acquire a physical form. I am not a hallucination."

"My head hurts. This doesn't make sense."

"It's not supposed to. You made me that way."

"What? I didn't make you."

"True. But I was trying to make myself in an image you wouldn't fear, and this is how I came out."

"This is crazy. You are not supposed to exist."

He looked distinctly uneasy at this. I couldn't figure out why.

"Well, I am, for now. In any case, I think we should have our introductions, hmm?" He jumped off the dresser and walked over to me, standing in the sun beam from the window. His fur was gold with black points on his ears, muzzle, paws, and his tail. His eyes were a strange dark green. On his left ear, there was a jet black earring, the same color as the marble, a hanging black jewel. The waistcoat was a dark black with gold embroidery on the cuffs, with a black vest and white shirt. His lower body was entirely fur, but the waistcoat itself was brushing his ankles as he walked on two feet.

"You look different. And you're talking different." I realized aloud.

"Yeah, I had to after the reception I got last time. After spending a small bit of time in your mother's company, I realized something."

"Like what?"

"I sounded like a freak. And your mother has some pretty sordid fantasies."

"What?!"

"Don't ask me to repeat it, it was creepy enough seeing it, though I'm sure whoever Roderick is must be pleased."

"Shut up! Don't say those things about my mom!" I said in protest. He shrugged.

"I only relate what I saw. Now, names?"

"Oh…I'm Helena Harrick."

"Ouch. How many times were you beaten up in school over that one?"

"I'm not sure I like you very much."

"I grow on you."

"Like a malignant fungus?"

"Exactly. Now, Helen…may I call you Helen?"

"Sure. I don't see why you can't stick on that extra 'a' though."

"I'm a cat, and therefore inherently lazy. Now, I have to ask you something."

"Aren't you going to give me your name?" I asked, looking down at him. He was almost a foot and a half tall, which made him, what, a third my size?

"That's what I have to ask you about. I don't have a name."

"Why not?" I asked, halfway expecting some sob story.

"I don't remember it. You'll have to give me one, since I'll be hanging out with you from now on."

Well, it was a sob story to the point, I guess.

"How am I supposed to name someone I just met? Shall I call you Mr. Hallucination?"

"I thought we got passed this whole hallucination business."

"Oh no. It's still open for discussion." I got off my bed and sat on the incredibly cold floor so I could look at him at a semi-eye level.

He gazed back at me, unblinkingly. We stared at each other for a moment, then I reached out my hand to touch him, then drew back. I wasn't sure I wanted to touch him. If I touched him, that would mean I would have to admit that he might honestly be there, and I wasn't ready to admit that yet.

He looked a little pained, but steeled himself and stepped forward closing the gap between us. He stopped when he was standing with his nose an inch from my face, and still not actually touching me.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He said calmly. "You don't need to be afraid."

"I'm not afraid." I said unflinchingly. I reached my hand up again, and brought it lightly down on his head, flattening his ears.

His fur was soft, almost fluffy. He was warm under my hand, but his ears were a little cold from the temperature in the room. Worst of all, I could feel a pulse beating when I moved my hand down to the base of his neck.

No way a hallucination could be this real.

"I can't believe this, you are actually real. You are real!" I said in total amazement. He actually broke out into a grin.

"I knew you'd figure it out. Now, about that name." He sobered up. "I still need one."

"Why can't you pick out your own?"

"A name is something other people give you. If I gave one to myself, it would be empty and without purpose."

"Wow, that's deep."

"Yeah, I siphoned it from your memories when I was creating myself."

"We are going to have a talk about that." I said severely. No one is supposed to be poking around in there.

He shrugged and sat down beside me, stretching out his legs. "So whatcha gonna call me?"

"Um…" I quickly thought. He needed a name, and I was certain he probably knew all of the ones I knew. "Boston?'

"But I'm not black." He pointed out. "Boston blackies are black cats."

"Right…well, beggars can't be choosers, all of my other cat names are something like Mr. Whiskers and Cheshire Cat, and you don't seem to fit any of that."

"Yes, and Boston does have a sophisticated ring to it." He said tweaking his nose. "Okay! Boston it is!"

"Helena! Come down for supper!" Mom called from way downstairs.

"Is it that late?" I asked looking at the door, then turned back to Boston, to figure out what to do with him.

He wasn't there.

"Boston? Where'd you go?" I got up and looked around, then looked at the marble. It seemed to gleam a little. I picked it up. "You're in there, aren't you?"

_Travel size for your convenience._

My eyes slightly widened. His voice echoed in my head.

_Better go eat before Mother dearest has a fit. I'll see you later._

I almost let a smile go as I laid the marble choker down on the dresser, then left my room for dinner.

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I walked up the stairs slowly. Dinner had been a less than cheery affair, no matter how much Mom tried to cover it. She always was unhappy when Dad left her alone for long times. He left today at lunch for an overseas project, and would be back for maybe one day next week. So now she was stuck being totally alone, unable to speak of her 'troubles' to me, and not knowing anyone in the neighborhood to talk with.

I really did feel sorry for her. But sometimes, just sometimes, I think she won't be happy unless she has something to worry about.

Ah well. We were in the same boat, really. I didn't have any friends to talk to, and I certainly wasn't going to talk to her about the living creature in my room.

Living creature. That's what it was, wasn't it? Part of me, I think, always knew it was at least partly real. And now that I had touched it, and accepted it, it wasn't going to go away.

He. Must remember that it is he.

Which brings up another little problem. I'll be damned if he stays on the dresser while I get ready for bed, I snorted mentally, while also letting part of that snort pass my lips.

"Helena! Did you just say something you weren't supposed to?" Mom yelled threateningly.

How the heck does she do that?!

"I didn't say anything Mom!" Out loud, I added quietly. "Must have been the staircase creaking."

Man, was that an outrageous lie.

She answered with something I couldn't really hear, but I wasn't meant to. I hurried up the staircase, even as it creaked loudly.

"Don't run up those stairs, you'll break your neck!"

"Yes ma'am!" I said as I found the door to my attic and pulled it open and slipped inside. I quickly retreated into it, hoping that it had some magical barrier against the mental prowess of mum.

"The woman is psychic, isn't she?" Boston was sitting on the edge of my bed, with my math book propped up in front of him.

"No, it's just a mother's intuition…I think." I sat down on the edge of the bed that was farther away from the cat, and we stared at each other for a moment. "What are you doing?" I asked after a moment.

"Learning."

"Why?"

"Because I'll be better, if I learn."

"That's borderline obsessive, I think."

"No, that's an attempt to make myself better through optimism."

"That's optimism in itself."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He sniffed, shutting my book and leaping off the book to put it into my bag. "You're finished, right?"

"Yeah, I was just working ahead, anyway." I said, watching him quietly. I was still really weirded out by it, even though I was now dealing with it a little more rationally than Trabwick. If that was possible.

"What exactly am I going to do with you?" I said suddenly. He looked up at me.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what am I going to do with you? You can't exactly be seen by anyone, it's going to cause trouble."

"Let me deal with that. You can trust me."

"I can't believe I'm going along with this."

"Face it shorty—you're stuck with me!" He said with a happy grin. I seriously considered tossing his kitty butt out the window into the snow. That would teach him to be happy in potentially emotionally scarring situations.

"So, did you bring me any chow?"

"Uh…no."

"Probably just as well. I've seen what that woman does in the kitchen and it's absolutely horrid. How can you eat it?"

"You get used to it. It's not really that bad. She just needs a little practice."

"Darling," He jumped up onto my bed and elbowed me in the ribs, "Her bread can be used as a doorstop."

I laughed out loud, finally breaking the ice between us. It was very much like talking to a friend I hadn't seen in forever.

Or a friend I didn't know I had.


	6. Chapter 6: Wandering around Lakegate

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"Helen. Helen."

An insistent voice kept breaking into the nice deep sleep I was having. I groaned and pulled the covers over my head.

"Helen!" The voice became whiny now, and appropriately annoying.

"What?" I mumbled under the covers.

"You slept through breakfast."

"Good."

"And you are in danger of sleeping through lunch. That can't be healthy."

"Whatever, 'Mom'." I buried myself deeper under the covers.

There was silence, and I felt a supreme sense of satisfaction of chasing off the cat. Though chasing was being a little too optimistic. I don't plan on getting up for another four hours.

School had been tiring, especially to be working at a pace someone else sets for me. But I survived my first week, even though I hadn't made any friends.

Now it was the weekend, my school was done for two days, no homework, and I was going to take as much advantage of it as possible.

The side of my covers lifted up and a large, wet ball of slush hit me straight in the face.

"Gah!" I sat straight up, trying to get the water out of my eyes. I looked around the room and saw Boston floating in the air just to my left, with another dripping handful of slush in one of his paws.

"Awake?"

"You little-" I made a grab for him, which he easily dodged, and fell straight off the bed onto the freezing cold floor.

Well, if I wasn't awake before, I certainly was NOW!

"What are you doing?!" I snarled, struggling to get up even though the covers had me tied.

"It's not healthy to sleep for sixteen of twenty four hours in your day." He said, lowering himself to the ground. His floating had returned two days after I named him, and he used it to excess.

"It's not healthy to be woken up by freezing ice, either!"

"But it's one of the only proven methods of waking you I have!" He protested as he helped me untangle my legs.

"Maybe I like sleeping, have you ever thought of that?"

"I have, but then I realized that I don't really care. It's time you got a new hobby." He said, waving a paw at me. "Let's go to the library!"

"What? You woke me up to go to the library?"

"Yes. And to see more of the town."

"I've seen as much of this town as I want to." I got up and yawned, which took the space of about twenty seconds. Boston hopped up onto the bed.

"That's a sort of designated antisocial behavior. I think you have more deep seated neuroses than your parents."

"Do not."

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"I do not!"

"Hah! Childhood regression."

"What?" I said, confused with the sudden change, then I threw up my hands, "You are impossible."

"I know." He said smugly. "So we going or not?"

"Let me sleep on it." I said grabbing the blankets. He immediately took a fighting stance.

"No way!"

I looked up to my ceiling. Then a small smile graced my lips.

Boston was looking a little disturbed. "Why are you smiling?"

Quickly I threw the blankets at him, getting him stuck under the pile. Then I picked up the pile and dropped it on the floor, and got back into my bed without blankets. But there was still a nice warm space, and I quickly settled into it.

"Of all the people…Hah!" Boston crowed.

I opened my eye slightly just in time to see the pillow swat me in the head.

"Hey!"

"Rise and shine, Helen!" He said triumphantly, preparing to strike me again. I grabbed my pillow and defended myself.

"I am a champion of pillow fights." I said, kneeling on my bed. "You have no chance of victory."

"It's only because you're one of them." He stuck his tongue out at me.

At that we quickly engaged in a pillow fight that neither of us won, I being experienced and he being able to fly kind of evened the odds on both sides.

"Well, that was fun. You awake now?" He said, panting against the window sill.

"Yeah, I'm awake. Lemme go get a shower." I pulled my closet door open and pulled out a new pair of red pants and a black tank top. These I would wear until I was ready to leave. I threw the grey flannel shirt on the bed and rushed downstairs for a shower.

The shower was quick, and I tied my hair in a ponytail again as I climbed back up the stairs. When I got back in, the bed was made. Boston, for some reason, liked to keep the room as clean as possible, doing things I would have done after a few minutes. It may have been something he got from me.

I plucked the flannel up and put it on. Boston was floating near the window, spying, I think, on the next door neighbors. They were a happy couple with the brattiest bunch of kids I'd ever seen. Everyday, it was some sort of screaming or howling, usually directed at the parents. I hope I was never like that.

"How's the brat brigade?" I asked.

"The little boy just cut one sister's hair and has planted the evidence, scissors and all, by the other sister."

"Master criminal in the making." I commented as I buttoned up the long sleeved flannel. It was incredibly warm and made me think, inevitably, of the nice warm spot that was no longer on my bed.

I picked the choker up and put it around my neck. It looked a little odd, with a charm that big, but it wasn't all that bad. It was actually kind of stylish.

"Where is the library?" I wondered aloud, realizing I didn't know.

"I'll give you directions."

"How do you know?"

"When your mom was asleep I went downstairs and looked through the phone book and some other books, earlier this week." He said, nose still to the glass. "Heh. It backfired, he got caught."

"He getting punished?"

"No. His parents are just trying to reason with him." He turned from the window. "Kid's gonna grow up to be a righteous pain in the ass, I think."

"Well, that's neither of our problems." I said to him as I pulled on some socks.

"True. Almost ready?"

"Yeah." I looked at my trash can, full to the brim of draft homework that didn't make the final cut of actually being turned in. "I better empty the trash."

_We can always do that later. His voice echoed in my head._

I looked around. It was unnerving when he did this, be walking in my room one moment, then when I turn my eyes, he disappears into the marble.

"Okay, let's go." I climbed down the stairs, popped my head into the kitchen and told Mom I was going. She gave me some money and told me to be careful of insane people that roam the alleyways. I thanked her for the advice, put on my shoes and my coat, and left just as she realized that I hadn't eaten, and told me to eat something healthy while I was out.

"I will Mom!" I closed the door after me and walked down the drive, which was cleaned by me yesterday evening. It was part of my new chore system. I'd cut the grass when it wasn't snowing, shovel the drive, whatever, and she'd take care of the car and the inside of the house.

The neighborhood was nice, even though the snow was a foot high on either side of the sidewalk. I had to shovel the sidewalk in front of the house too. By the time I got back in, my hands were threatening to fall off. Luckily, Mom had the instant remedy. Instant hot chocolate, just add water.

I kept walking to the end of the street, my breath coming out in white puffs. An elderly couple waved at me from their doorway, and I waved back, just to be nice.

_Friendly place._

"Kind of creepy." I murmured back.

_Turn right at the stop sign, go two blocks, then take another right, and we'll be at the library._

"Kay." I kept walking.

In no time at all, following his precise instructions, I found myself in front of a very large iron gate. At the very top of the gate were a couple of gargoyles.

"Are you sure this is the library?"

_Not anymore._

"Great…"

"Hey, who are you?" A voice barked out suddenly.

I whirled around to see an older, balding man in a gray jacket walking along the stone fence that sprouted from either side of the gate.

"Hey, I'm new…Is this the library?"

"Library?" He squinted at me. "You're on the wrong street missy. Go about four blocks back thataway, you'll get to it."

He was pointing back the way I had come.

"Okay, sorry for bothering you." I said, quickly beating a retreat. I didn't want to stay in that guy's company any more than I had to.

 _What was that about?_ Boston wondered.

"I don't know, and I don't want to. I thought you said you knew the way!" I hissed when I thought we were out of his range.

_I do! It must have been you turning me around!_

"Oh yeah, blame it on me, just because you can't read a map."

__

Kind of hard to give directions when you're looking at life through a marble.

"Too bad. I feel out of place enough already, if you pop out, I'll have real problems."

He snorted but didn't say anything. I hurried back through the streets until, four blocks away, just as the old man said, I was in front of the Public Library. A few people had just come out, and I caught the door before it totally closed and stepped in.

It wasn't anything big, but it was packed with books and the hushed murmur of dozens of people poring over books.

"Are you lost?" A young woman with short cropped straight brown assaulted me before I could get farther into the building.

"Yeah, I'm new to town, and I want to check out some books." I said, rehearsing the same line I'd used a dozen times in a dozen different places, give or take two or three places.

"Okay, you need to get a card, it won't cost you a thing, and you have two weeks to bring them back," She kept going on. I politely nodded, knowing that most libraries have the same rules. Do not bend, break, mutilate, or tear the books. Do not cause problems in library. If you do, you will be dragged outside and your card shall be ripped to tiny bits to show all of your painful disobedience. Or something like that.

"What is your name?" She asked as she put some information into the computer.

"Helena Harrick." She asked my address, which I gave, along with all of the other information she asked. She then handed me a card, to use for the good of all library going kids everywhere. I thanked her and went off to explore.

The fantasy section was huge, but also packed with adults and kids. The mystery section was the same, and the biggest group of people was a bunch of ladies, picking out their latest romance novel. I never really liked them. I mean, I like the light dash of romance, but only when it's in a book that also has a plot that usually involves bag guys that are really bad, not Duke Alfred that wants the heroine because she's marginally cuter than the one he already has tailing him, and a storyline that could stand on its own without romance, and only uses it to enhance the story. Only a few romance novels that I have ever picked up had any sort of interesting plot, and those, if I remember correctly, had backstabbing evil courtiers that had the idea that if the heroine wouldn't be theirs, she wouldn't be anyone else's.

But it seems like all the ones I find are nothing special.

After a couple of hours, most of the sections cleared out and I managed to pick up a few books, which I quickly checked out and left.

__

Wow, Libraries are popular.

"No, some people don't have anything better to do." I said. "Didn't you notice half of those people didn't leave with anything?"

__

Loiterers.

"I wonder if there is anywhere to eat around here?"

__

Doesn't look like it. It looks like we're trapped in suburbia.

"Wait, that looks like a food place." I pointed down the street to a building with a whole bunch of cars in front of it. The sign was obscured, and it wasn't until I got in three feet of it that I could read it.

Candy's Soda Pop Diner.

It was an old fashioned looking restraint, or diner, but there was the familiar smell of burgers permeating the air.

I suddenly realized that I was absolutely starving. I pulled out my money and counted thirty dollars. More than enough.

I gently pushed open the door, ringing the cowbell above the door. Some people turned to glance at me, but quickly turned back to wolfing down their food. There were booths, tables, and a bar full of stools. Only a couple of the stools were left, and I took one closest to the door. I scanned the menu above the work area, and selected a burger and fries and some soda whose name I didn't recognize but looked like either a Coke or a Dr. Pepper.

The waitress, an older woman, popped up in front of me, almost scaring me off the stool. She had gray hair in a hair net and the sort of air about her that she had dealt with a lot of people in her lifetime, and buddy, you don't even rank above half.

"What you want, honey?"

I gave her my order. She nodded and wrote it down, slapping the note on a stove in front of a woman with arms about as big around as I was, who was using these arms to flip burgers with practiced ease.

As I waited for my food, I sipped on my soda the waitress had handed over (it was more like Cherry Soda) and looked at all of the people.

Burgers were the most popular, it seemed. Just about everyone had one. I also saw a few salads, and a chicken sandwich or two.

The people, though, were all different. Old ladies, some of the football players and whatever sport players, two different groups of girls that were intent on glaring each other down, for whatever reason, some people in business suits, eating carefully to avoid dropping food on themselves, a few truckers, a group of gothic teenagers, and some other people to fill in the cracks.

"There are a lot of people here. Are you usually this busy?" I asked the waitress. She nodded.

"Twelve is always our busy hour, even more than the dinner hours. You're new in town, aren't you?"

"Is it that obvious?" I asked jokingly. She gave me a toothy grin.

"You look like you walked off the wrong bus stop."

"Naw, I just moved here a couple weeks ago." My mouth began to water and my stomach protested mistreatment when she set a big plate of burger and fries in front of me. I had already paid her for the meal, and dug in with gusto.

It was very good. Very good. I tore into the burger hungrily.

"Don't choke honey, it isn't that good, no, wait, it's that good, but if you choke you can't enjoy the fries." The waitress said across the bar from the register. I forced myself to slow down, but it was hard. I had missed breakfast and hadn't eaten in over twelve hours.

"Candy! That loser Roger is parked in front of my car again!" A girl yelled as she opened the door. The waitress rolled her eyes.

"Well, don't park it in the lot for that long a time!" She scolded. Then her eyes widened. "What the hell did you do to your hair, girl?"

A girl about my age with shoulder length blonde hair that had green streaks in it sat down in the stool next to mine and slammed her bag on the counter. "It's those brats at the Dersen place, they booby trapped the entire house. I got through all of them except the pan of egg die the stuck over the front door."

She had a stubborn face that was clouded over with her bad experience of the morning, and her eyes were brown, but glared at the grain of the bar with so much intensity, it looked as if she would destroy it by blinking.

"Well, if you hadn't crashed into the sign at Ice cream Palace, you wouldn't have that problem." Candy scolded her before setting a drink in front of her. Then she glanced at me in surprise. "You can put it away, can't you? Didn't think someone small as you could eat that much that fast."

I blinked at her, confused. Then I looked down at my plate and saw that my fries were all but gone.

__

A-heh-heh-heh.

"Where did you put it all?" She asked. I shrugged.

"Boston." I said a little nervously.

"Un hunh." She shrugged off my odd answer and turned back to the girl. I glared at the plate and vowed to keep a good grip on my burger.

"I swear, there is a beast in every one of those kids, waiting to suddenly explode from their husks like some sort of invasion of the body snatchers."

"Didn't they have pods?"

"I don't remember, you expect me to remember any movie as old if not older than me?" The girl rolled her eyes. "You know I'm all into new stuff."

"So I take it you don't like the diner?" Candy challenged. I took another bite of my burger, eager to finish it before Boston, however he did it, could leap in and snag it before I could finish.

"No, the diner's fine, Candy, besides, nothing I say will make you change it, now will it?" The girl sighed.

"No it won't." The older lady sniffed. Then she turned to me. "How d you like the diner?"

I swallowed the last piece of burger. "It's very interesting."

"That's the kind of thing people say while they think, 'this place sucks.'" Candy said severely. I put up my hands in defense.

"I didn't mean it that way. I really do like it." I said earnestly.

"Cowing another customer in submission." The girl beside me smirked into her straw. I ignored her.

"You want any desert?" Candy asked me.

"No, thanks, I better be getting home. The food was great." I left a three dollar tip and hoped off the barstool and walked out, bell ringing.

I got about three blocks before I heard someone running up behind me.

"Hey, wait up! You walk too fast." The girl with green hair panted as she caught up with me.

I stopped for a few minutes as she gasped for breath.

"You're not really in shape, are you?"

"Hey, you chase little brats around the entire morning and walk almost a mile in uncomfortable shoes and see where it gets you!" She panted. "What's your name?"

"What?" I said confused. "Why do you want to know?"

"Candy, she's my aunt, said you were new, I figure, I don't have a lot of friends, wouldn't hurt to try to make an acquaintance, hunh?" She said, taking gasps to return her breath to normal.

"I guess so." I said a little doubtfully. I could see why she didn't have friends, she was loud and a little on the rude side.

"So what's your name?" She asked, smoothing out her black jacket.

"Helena."

"Helena? I'm Pepper." She put out a hand and I shook it. "So you go to school? I haven't seen you there."

"Yeah, I got stuck in a lot of left over classes." I said as I kept walking.

"That explains it. I barely got into my classes. I mean, I'm not supposed to be in those classes until next year, but I'm smart enough that I weaseled my way in." She sounded proud of this fact. "So where did you go to school before you decided to come to the great and happy town of Lakegate?"

"I was home schooled."

"Really? I would love to do that, but my parents, they keep saying to me, 'learning with other kids will give you a better future'. But you know, a lot of the other kids try to pick on me because I'm older, but they're just dorks. I just hope when I'm majorly successful and they have to scrub my aunt's floors, I'm not to mature to gloat."

The more this girl talked, the more I had to stop a smile from twitching from my lips. She really did like to talk. She only stopped every few minutes to ask me a question before launching herself into something else.

Pretty soon I had to stop. Pepper kept walking and talking, almost a quarter block away before she realized I had not followed.

"What's up?"

"I live here." I pointed to my house. She looked it over with an appreciating eye.

"That is nice. I live in a duplex about six blocks away with my parents and my cousins next door. It's probably only little over half as big as that place."

I felt a little chagrined, but she didn't notice.

"What floor is your room on?"

"The attic."

"Cool. I live in the basement because that's where I can play my music loud without getting caught." She said, then smacked herself in the forehead and looked at her watch.

"Crud! I have to go, another babysitting job in twenty. See you later, Helena. See you at school!" She dashed off down the street before I could say anything.

__

Interesting girl.

"I'll say." I said as I walked up the drive and opened the door. "She can talk your ear right off though."


	7. Chapter 7: Strange Occurances

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I pulled on a gray sweatshirt and shivered. Outside there were several large drifts of snow. I rubbed my eyes sufficiently awake.

Snow had fallen unexpectedly on Kansas and left about two feet of snow, and it was still going, but a little lighter. School got canceled, even though the people on the radio were complaining that this sort of thing never happened to them, they always had to go to school.

I grabbed a blanket and wrapped myself in it. Dad was supposed to be here, but he probably came in when I slept.

Boston looked like a floating cocoon. He had snatched up the sheets and wrapped himself in them, looking like a ball of flowers with black ears and a black muzzle poking out.

"Don't they get the heat fixed?! It's freezing!" He chattered. I tapped the window so that the snow fell off of it and was rewarded by an icy slap of wind in the face.

"No wonder we're freezing!" I grumbled as I trooped downstairs. At the end of the second floor was a closet that Mom had stuffed the summer blankets she had bought. A little digging found an old stained (I have no idea nor do I want to have one as to what the stain is) blanket that was probably bought at a two for one sale. I dragged it back upstairs with me and began using it to block the window so no more cold air would come in.

After five minutes of struggling with cold fingers, I let it drop to the ground and wandered back downstairs, this time all the way down to the kitchen, where I heard Mom clicking her tongue when the stove wouldn't work.

I opened one of the drawers and pulled out some heavy duty masking tape. Mom turned to watch me walk back to the stairs, wrapped in two blankets and looking like I just woke from the dead, which was what I felt like. I went back to my room, forced the blanket up to the window, and taped the entire thing in place. It took me ten minutes by the watch on my dresser, but when I was done no cold air was drifting into the room and the ice sickles on the arch of the ceiling were beginning to drip as they melted. Boston poked more of his head out of the sheets and got more active. I, on the other hand, plopped face first into the bed, still holding the almost empty tape roll.

I curled up into a little ball, which wasn't too hard, and let the blankets just pile over me.

"Helena?"

Why, mother, why?

"Helena, get up honey." She gave me a little shake. My eyes flew open when I realized she was in my room.

I shot straight up and saw Mom staring at my handiwork on the window. Boston was nowhere in sight.

"Honey, why did you tape the blanket to the window?"

"It was cold."

"The window was cold?"

"No," I rubbed my eyes awake. "The room was cold. Air was coming in. It was freezing."

"Oh." She nodded at that. "But couldn't you have just said something?"

"Easier this way."

"Whatever you say, honey." She shook her head. "Well, get up sweetheart. Your father and I are going out for some breakfast, and I need you to be awake incase something happens."

"Okay." I said, pulling myself and the blankets off the bed and wrapping them around me. "You going to bring me back something?"

"How about some chocolate donuts? You like those, right?"

I nodded, yawned, and stood in front of Mom while she related the rules of the household to me.

I almost jumped when something furred brushed my ankle, but luckily, Mom had just glanced at her watch, and had not caught my surprised expression. I quickly wiped it off and replaced my tired, let-me-go-back-to-bed-forever look.

"Feel free to watch T.V. I have my cell phone, so don't hesitate to call."

"What if the storm gets worse and I can't call?" I asked, not really expecting problems.

"Call one of the departments, they'll know what to do." She walked out of my room and went down the stairs. I picked up my choker from the dresser, put on a pair of hideous yet incredibly warm slippers, and let the blankets brush the ground as I followed, hiding Boston as he followed me so closely that he could have tripped me numerous times.

We stopped in the living room, where Dad, impatiently jingling his keys, waited to get going.

"We'll be back soon, sweety." She kissed me on the forehead. Dad patted me on the head before holding the door open for Mom, and they both went out in the light snowfall, shutting and locking the door behind them.

I stood by the window, watching the drive, which had been cleared as a courtesy by the snow shovelers that were also helping clear the road. I counted two, waving as the old car pulled out of the drive and rumbled down the street. Then they went back to attacking a piece of ice that was blocking a storm drain, cracking off pieces so that the snow, when it melted, had a place to go other than freeze in the road and ditches.

Once the last bit of sound from my Mom's car disappeared, I lifted up the blanket to see Boston blink owlishly at me. Then he lick his paw and brought it across the ruffled fur on his head, patting the hair back into place.

"Why were you hiding under my blankets?"

"Well, when your mother came in, I was hiding under the bed, but I needed to get out of there because the roaches were giving me odd looks. And there was a little dust, and I was afraid I would start sneezing. So while Mother dearest was speaking with you, I used my cat like reflexes to hide under the covers."

"You could have gotten us caught. What are you afraid of a few roaches?"

"You'd be afraid of them too, if they were as big as your feet." He said sulkily.

I thought about that. "Okay, I'll give you that. Wanna watch T.V with me?"

"Yep!" His ears flicked back up, no longer upset. He waited until I was curled up on the couch in my blankets with the remote in one hand before he leaped up and snuggled against me with his head drooped over my shoulder.

I flipped channels, pausing a couple minutes to catch the end of a cartoon I'd never heard of.

"I used to hate the morning cartoons because it was just Scooby-Doo and I'd seen all of them."

"Scooby-Doo, is that the one with the dog with a speech impediment?"

I grinned. I had said that to my Mom one time, when she asked me what I thought was my favorite cartoon and why. But I don't watch cartoons anymore. "Yeah. But it got to the point where I could watch the beginning to the show and know who was the bad guy and why and whether or not they would go after the wrong guy and stuff."

"You liked it that much?"

"I guess, I don't really remember anymore." I flipped through the channels till I got to a home cooking network. "I wonder if Mom knows this is here."

"That's depressing. What are they cooking?"

"No clue. It looks like cabbage…lettuce…radishes? What IS that?" I stared at the leaves as they wrapped up what looked like…

"I think she has been watching this. Change the channel." Boston stretched his paw down to the remote and changed the channel. It was sports.

"College tennis." I read the little lines at the bottom. "I think this is just a practice or a rerun." I started channel surfing again.

"Two hundred and fifty four channels and so far all that's been interesting is a cartoon, a bad cooking show, and College tennis. Speaks volumes for the programming, hunh?" He said languidly.

"Yeah." I hit a news channel and prepared to pass it when I noticed the headline. "Strange Occurrences All Over the World." I put the remote down to listen to the middle aged woman.

"—and even though most of the high seated stations won't bring you these breaking reports, the Eight Points Studio is bringing you all the scoops, with no censorship or strings attached."

"Is that because no one else will take the stories?" Boston whispered.

"Our first story is about several sightings by sailors on the east coast by a large, silver snake."

A quick shot of a reporter talking to a fisherman, who along with his cronies, were gesturing how big the snake they saw was, and whether or not it had horns. As far as I could tell, it was between fifteen and five hundred feet long, and had forty horns, all of which were pointy and sharp.

"I wonder if they were drunk?" Boston said raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged.

It returned to the studio.

"Also in news, sighting across the US of strange creatures and odd happenings. In Ohio, there has been a reported sight of a winged man. In New York, there has been mass hysteria amongst the homeless of a monster living in the sewers. In a report from Mexico and South America from our sources, similar happenings have surfaced."

That struck a sort of warning chord in my mind, but I couldn't figure out why. I shook it off.

Suddenly she looked pensive, hand halfway to her ear. I noticed that she was wearing an earpiece.

"Getting a call from the mother ship, you think?" Boston snickered. I had to laugh too.

"This just in from our reporter in the field. Lakegate, Kansas, is having extremely odd weather patterns."

I stopped laughing. I turned my head to lock eyes with Boston. "That is creepy."

"A completely circular area including the area around Lakegate and a one mile radius around the city is experiencing record amounts of snowfall."

"Snow doesn't fall in a circle." I said. Boston still had his eyes glued to the screen.

"We now bring you some pictures from the scene."

The screen immediately cut to the inside of a helicopter, where a reporter, obviously freezing, was gripping his seat and gesturing out the window and yelling.

"As you can see the snow is falling in an extremely odd manner, get a picture of this!" The cameraman zoomed the camera in on the cloud hanging oddly in the air.

It didn't even look like a cloud. It looked like someone had grabbed a marshmallow, made it float, then afterwards got the idea to make it look like a cloud. And from the giant cloud, came a torrent of snow. But, whatever wind they were caught in that made the helicopter sway, it didn't seem to affect the snow, which fell straight down like an extremely heavy rain.

"That is not natural."

"No it isn't." Boston was frowning.

"Thanks, Rob. Well, you heard it here first, and we will be checking in with more information when it comes to us." Then she started babbling about chickens born with three legs, and an entire hatchery of chickens that had hatched ducks from their chicken eggs.

I turned to Boston. "What do you think?"

He looked out the window at the snow. "I think that network is full of it. A lot of the things they mark as conspiracy is probably just mistakes. But something like that…and judging the fact that neither of us know exactly how the weather is here regularly, I'd say we shouldn't judge so fast, but we shouldn't keep it out of our minds, either. There is definitely something going on. Like you said, snow doesn't fall in circles."

"And weather is not that predictable, especially where clouds are concerned." I said with a frown.

We sat quietly for awhile, then I changed the channel until I found a real T.V station.

"They don't have a thing on us." I said, after watching for twenty minutes. I checked the clock on the wall and frowned. "They should have been home by now."

"Think they got stuck in the snow?"

"I hope not." I chewed on my thumbnail. Usually I don't worry…not about anything really. But my parents, I always tried to keep an eye on them, even if they don't notice. I figure someone should watch after them, they aren't exactly adept at doing it themselves.

The snow was starting to fall harder now. I got up and looked out the window. The sky was dark, and snow was falling in sheets.

I gripped the sheets a little tighter.

Boston wrapped his paws around my neck from behind soothingly. "They're probably just driving slow and being careful."

"I hope so."

A loud ringing noise surprised us both, and Boston left some scratches on my neck when he leaped onto the top of my head, bristling like an alley cat.

I ran through the house until I found the phone, under several magazines. I picked it up and held it too my ear. Boston held his head down to the earpiece, listening in.

"Honey?"

"Mom!" I let a sigh of relief out.

"Hey baby, I'm sorry, but we've been snowed in at the mall."

"Why were you at the mall?" I asked, confused.

"That's where we were getting breakfast, honey. Look, we can't get back to the car. We don't know how long we'll be snowed in, so…there's some food in the cupboard, and try to keep warm, sweetie. Don't go outside, the snow is really bad." Mom was sniffling.

"I'll be okay Mom. I'm sure the snow won't be that long, and you'll be home in no time. I'll see you when you get back."

"Okay, Sweetie, just be careful, if you have to go outside make sure you're bundle up real good, okay? Don't go outside if you don't have to."

"Okay."

"I love you."

"I know Mom." I felt a little lump interfering my speech. "I-I love you too. And Dad too."

"I'll tell him you said so, Helena, bye honey."

"Bye Mom." I waited until she hung up to put my phone down. The phones were still up for now, but if it got any worse, we'd probably lose electricity with the phones. And no electricity meant no heater.

"Well, at least they're safe, right?" Boston asked, peering at me sideways.

"Right. We'll probably have a harder time of it than them." I hugged the blanket. "We'll have to hope it doesn't get worse."

Just then someone knocked on the door.

"You were saying?" Boston asked before he floated over to the curtains. I walked up to the door and spied through the eyehole. Some person in an Eskimo like jacket was beating on the door, almost covered in snow. Behind the person I could see the bent over shape of two others.

"You wanna open it?" Boston asked. "Remember what your Mom said about alley freaks."

"They aren't in an alley."

"Maybe they were scared out of the alley by the snow, like when you set fire to a bug nest."

"We need to cut back on National geographic." I unlocked the door and opened it, getting chilled to the bone when a blast of below freezing air blew in through the open door. "Get in! Quick!"

They hurried in, and I had to push hard against the door to get it closed. If t hadn't been for the help of the Eskimo hooded person, I would have never gotten it closed.

"Thanks!" The muffled voice from Eskimo said, covered in a scarf and goggles. "We thought you were our last chance!"

"Who are you? Have we met?" I asked as I locked the door behind me.

"Helena!" One of the people dragged off their hats, revealing a Pepper that was redder than her namesake. "Oh gosh…it's freezing! So cold…"

"Pepper? Holy cow, were you guys walking around in that? You guys better get out of those clothes, I'll get you some blankets." I threw my blankets on the couch. "Use these after you get your jackets off, I'll try to get some extra clothes, too." I ran up the stairs, and dragged as many of the blankets out of the closet as I could, and ran back down the stairs, the slight bite of cold air hurrying me up.

Pepper, a man in his thirties, and a guy my age all huddled together, stripped to their pants and shirts, shivering violently.

I threw the stack of blankets on the couch. "There's more, I'll be back soon." I took two more trips, the last one raiding my parents room, ignoring the dresses and expensive suits- they weren't all that warm- and picking up all the jeans, shirts, and so on I could, and also dragged off their bear rug like comforter. None of my clothes would fit them, so I didn't try to look for any.

Pepper had jumped on the clothes, and ran off to the bathroom to change, with the two young men right behind her.

"Odd coincidence." A voice commented above me.

The living room has some rafters, and Boston was peering from overhead at me.

"Why do you say that?"

"They knew you'd be here? What would have happened if we had left with your mother?"

"I don't know. I'll ask Pepper."

Pepper chose that precise moment to walk in. "Who are you talking to?"

I looked over at her. "No one. Why did you come here?"

"No one else was home! We needed someone to take us in, and I thought of you."

"Really." I stated, beginning to have sneaking suspicions. She just looked back at me with big, innocent eyes.

"Really!"

"I think you're lying." I said calmly, rocking back on the heel of my slippers. "But I won't say anything more on it. I'll see if I have some hot chocolate in the kitchen to fix you guys, it'll probably help warm you up."

"Thanks a lot Helena." She said enthusiastically. She grabbed some blankets. "Just for the record, if I'm lying, so are you."

"And what makes you say that?"

"Intuition." She said happily as she wrapped herself up in five blankets and plopped down where I'd been sitting. "But we'll act like it never happened, deal?"

I walked into the kitchen as the thirty year old and the young man, who had dark skin, ear length black hair, and strange eyes, more grey than blue, walked into the living room. The older man was a gruff looking guy with a three day growth and sort of wild short hair.

I pulled the box of Instant cocoa and glanced up to see the glowing eyes of a cat watching me.

Something ruffles my fur about that group. His voice whispered in my ear. I want to see what they say when no one thinks you listen.

I nodded, careful not to make so much of a motion, in case someone in the living room, which while not visible to me was slightly visible to them, saw the movement.

I almost smiled. It was like some really bad spy movie where the agent sends his fly to sit on the wall to listen in while his suspects talk without having to worry about him, or so they thought.

I sighed. When did my life change from a sleepy kid who goes to school into a sleepy kid that uses a magical flying cat to spy on acquaintances?


	8. Chapter 8: Paranoid Conspiracies

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I sat in an armchair, warm enough in the two pairs of sweatpants and sweatshirts I had on, sipping a cup of hot chocolate, watching them, the people that I allowed in my house, get warmed up.

Roger, the older man, was clicking his tongue and looking out the window, waiting for the storm to slow down. I don't think there was really a chance of that happening. Not anytime soon.

Walter, the kid my age, was actually twitching. He kept looking around the room and slitting his eyes at the doorways as if he expected the abominable Snowman or something to burst into the house and start eating the dying plant Mom had left near the door, or something equally heinous.

Pepper was flipping through channels, trying to find a good channel. However, the signals were rapidly diminishing, making watching T.V. like watching a slideshow that has serious problems.

"So how long you been here, Helena?" She asked, finally abandoning her quest.

"A little under three weeks, as you should know." I said, sipping the chocolate.

"No, that's not what I meant."

"Pepper, stop it, you know what your aunt said about this." Roger scolded her before brightening. "Hey, the weather's beginning to clear!"

One glance at the window informed me this was not the case, whatever delusion he was attaching himself to. Probably just wishful thinking.

"So you the only one here?" She persisted. I hitched an eyebrow.

"Of course. My parents went to get breakfast and won't be back until they can get out of the shopping mall."

"Pepper." Roger began again. Pepper swiftly cut him off.

"Do you like school?"

"Uh…just as much as the next teen?"

"Okay, that's enough. Pepper, you're having paranoid delusions. Helena, ignore her, she's having paranoid delusions." Roger directed. "Look!"

We all looked at the window, where a small speck of sunlight got through the giant cloud.

"The storm is clearing, I'm going to go check on the Hamil Family, they're only a couple blocks from here."

"But what if it starts up again?" I asked.

"I'll stay with them until there's another break. You guys stick here. Helena, can I borrow…?" He gestured the blankets he was wrapped him. I nodded and walked him to the door. "Don't let Pepper get to you, she watches way too many government conspiracy movies. I'll see if I can't grab some food from the corner store on the way back to give you, electricity may go out, even if the storm's resting." He opened the door only as far as it took to squeeze through, then shut it hurriedly, before the snow piled outside could get in.

I rubbed my temple with one finger. Great. A conspiracies theorist and her sidekick. This, Pepper, is probably why you don't have many friends.

Hey. Got a minute? Come to the kitchen.

I walked into the kitchen, calling that I needed more chocolate, and got a call from Walter that he'd like some more.

I fixed the chocolate, and stepped back from the counter into a spot I knew couldn't be seen in the Living Room.

"What?" I whispered.

"I am getting the weirdest vibes off of the boy, and Pepper was playing with the marble. You need to get it away from her; I won't be able to get back in if she's holding it." He whispered from somewhere behind me.

"Okay. Find anything?"

"No. But when you were in here before Roger said something about a man named Croder, how he was the last one to survive a blizzard like this."

"How does that help me?" I muttered, watching the Hot Cocoa starting to boil.

"Don't know. Just throwing it into the intelligence pool."

I stepped forward and made sure the hot cocoa was pulled off the heat and let it cool for a couple minutes, then brought it back out, handing Walter a new mug and cradling my new drink.

"Soo…"Pepper began as I sat down in my previous spot in the chair. "Now that we got the older element out of the house, I suppose you'd feel more comfortable talking with us about the problem outside."

"Excuse me?" I sighed, once again rubbing my temple. This was getting beyond annoying.

"Admit it, I have you pinned." She said smugly. "Right Wally?"

'Wally' said nothing and kept looking at the kitchen.

"Sure. Wanna tell me what I'm admitting to, Nancy Drew?" I said, unable to keep back a smile. This was absolutely ludicrous, and I might as well have a little bit of fun with it.

"You've caused a snowstorm to blanket all of Lakegate." She said, so sure of herself. "But all I want to know, is why? I have several theories."

"Well, you impart them and I'll tell you how close you are." I said, trying not to laugh.

"One: You are new here, a teenager, and probably not that great at school, and you want to make several snow days in a row in order to keep up on your work!"

"Seems like a lot of work for just a little bit of homework." I said over the rim of my mug.

"Yes, that's why I came up with this one—"

Here we go, this oughta be good…

"—You once lived here, and have decided to take revenge for whatever sadistic reason!"

"Sadistic, that's good word usage."

"Thank you. We also came up with the theory that 'this'," she held up my choker, "Is a priceless artifact and you want to use the storm to hide your escape with millions in stolen treasure!"

"In Lakegate?"

"What other place would gather less attention?"

"It seems to be catching quite a bit right now."

"But you're using that to your ends!"

"Sorry, I forgot." I grinned into the lip of my cup.

"And lastly, we have come to the theory that you, having just moved here and not having been here before, must be terribly homesick and have used the snowstorm to force your parents to take you back." She said, grinning.

I stared at her. The mug was still at my lips, which was good, because I couldn't have hidden a laugh even if I tried. "So," I said, biting back laughter. "How exactly did I do this?"

"That's where Wally comes in. He's a powerful psychic, capable of rendering a man unconscious in seconds and picking up the power of unnatural beings from miles away." She said smugly.

"Oh? If he's that powerful, can he tell what I'm thinking right now?" I asked, finally putting down the mug.

"It doesn't work that way." Wally had the grace to blush.

"Shut-up! Don't tell the enemy valuable information!" Pepper hissed.

I can't believe I was nervous about these people, they're complete idiots! Boston muttered as I seethed a little at being called the enemy.

Wally actually jerked and began looking around the room.

"Are you some sort of Spaz?" I asked a little unkindly. It was far too much of a coincidence that he did that after Boston started talking.

"Never mind this! Anyway, Where was I? Oh! You are using the power of a supernatural being or power of your own, if you happen to be some sort of Wiccan or sorceress, to set this storm upon our town."

"Sure I didn't whip out my sub zero rays and shot them into a cloud? I'm sure that could do the trick too." I said sarcastically.

"Don't get sarcastic on us, we know your secrets now."

"I'm sure you do. First and foremost, I finish my homework every night and I don't procrastinate. If I procrastinate then I don't have time to do the things I like to do. Like sleep." I took another sip. "Secondly, I've never lived here before, and I don't hold a grudge. Thirdly, that choker was given to me by my Mother in honor of my first day of school. I'd appreciate it if you'd fork it over, it's the only piece of jewelry I have that matches everything. Fourthly and Lastly, I haven't had a 'home' home in about five years. So, for that last theory to work, I'd have had to freeze over twenty towns."

She looked a little chagrined for a moment, then she hardened her resolve. "I know you are hiding something, and I will figure out what it is. Wally wouldn't have pointed this house out if there wasn't something going on!"

I looked over at Wally, who was quickly looking elsewhere. "Yeah, I can see how his word could be taken at the drop of a hat."

"What do you mean?" She asked defensively.

"Well, first of all, he's been twitching ever since he got in, and I know for a fact the things you attribute to him aren't true. He can't make men unconscious. He can't spot monsters from miles away. That was just your way of getting an edge through intimidation."

"How do you know that?" She spluttered, obviously not realizing she'd be taken off guard.

"Because he's not looking me in the eye. You are an accomplished liar, and he isn't, that's why he won't look at me. Besides that, judging by the way he twitches, I'd say that he lacks self confidence, because he wants to be ready for something that doesn't exist, but unfortunately, doesn't have the guts to face it, and that's why he twitches. With the abilities you listed, he should have been more confident, which he is not."

I can't believe I spouted off that load of crap. Some of it is at least half true, but the rest I was a blind person fishing in a lake with no fish.

"You're right." He looked entirely surprised.

Heh, caught a fish.

"Okay." She said sulkily. "That doesn't explain why Wally sensed a presence here though."

"I suppose it doesn't." I said smiling.

"But I'm not letting you off the hook."

Oh goodness, we're caught by a girl whose conspiracies don't hold theories? I'm scared to think of what will happen. Boston commented dryly.

"There is something here, Pepper." Wally said suddenly. I looked on with interest. "I can hear them whisper."

"Aha!" She said triumphantly. I shook my head and rolled my eyes. If all he could hear were whispers, I don't think I'm in that much trouble. On the other hand, if he acts so dramatic over 'whispers' I'd hate to see his reaction if Boston decided to show himself. He'd probably keel over.

I almost stopped myself. Since when were 'whispers' no big thing to me anymore? Boston's company has made me incredibly laid back. I didn't think it was possible to get me any calmer than I was then. Ah well, this calmness will serve me one day, like when I get drafted into the secret service to become Double-oh forty-two.

"Look, I'm sure—" My sharp retort, though witty and incredibly amusing, I'm sure, was cut off suddenly by the ringing phone. I frowned slightly. The phone lines around here must be incredibly tough to take that kind of a weather beating and still ring.

"Gee." I said as I got up. "That's probably for me."

I caught Pepper giving me a 'you think?' look as I passed her to pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

There was no answer. I glanced down at the phone, which in digital numbers identified the caller as Mom.

"Mom? You there?"

Still nothing. I shrugged and put the phone down. Either she had wanted to check up on me, or wanted to say she was coming home with Dad in tow.

She'd call back if it was important.

"Maybe old man Croder is to blame!" Pepper whispered excitedly to Wally, not realizing that I could hear her every word. Or realizing, but not caring. Apparently, she had given up on me being the culprit, though I'm concerned that she left off questioning me so fast. Maybe I answered all the right questions? But wouldn't that make me more suspect, for knowing all of the answers?

I shrugged and wandered back to my seat.

"So who's old man Croder?" I asked. That's twice I've heard his name, and I think a little intelligence gathering wouldn't go awry.

"He survived a blizzard like this. They say he was trapped in his house for over two weeks, living on canned foods." Pepper said, obviously over me. "And they say he's insane. Guy's about seventy and he's been living in the same house for over thirty years. They say he hates everybody. He's a prime suspect! He's going to wipe the entire town off the face of the map! We have to go tell my Aunt, she's part of neighborhood watch." She got up. "Can I take your blankets? I promise to return them!"

I was a bit lost for words so I only nodded. She dragged Wally off, who was still looking for the source of the 'whisper', or so I assume: He could be looking for the rest of his sanity. I can only guess it takes less than the normal amount to go traipsing around in the snow with a person named Pepper who believes in farfetched conspiracies.

"Oh! And remember, Helena! I'm watching you!" Pepper said as I followed them out of the Living room and to the door.

"Okay." I said, waving. And I'll be waiting for that restraining order I can put you under, I added silently.

They both ran out into the snow, which was still pretty light. Roger hadn't come back, I can only assume he got to his house and had to stay there, or is purposefully staying out of sight.

I shut the door with some trouble, and locked it.

"Well, that was interesting." I walked back into the room to retrieve my mug.

"Should we let them wander?" Boston asked from his perch above.

"What choice do we have? I can't force them to stay, I wouldn't want to. Besides, they were pissing me off, better they leave." I began to dig through the blankets Pepper and Wally hadn't taken. I frowned. "Where is the choker?"

"It isn't down there?"

"No it's…Hell. She took it with her." I threw down a blanket. "Paranoid little Schizoid. She took the marble with her!"

Boston looked distinctly uneasy when I looked up at him.

"Are you okay?"

"I don't want to be seen." His ears were all the way down and he looked upset, but not afraid. "If I'm discovered…as long as I'm with you, I won't be seen, at least not if they don't look right at me, they'll only see a shadow, but if I have no way to disappear completely, it would be, how shall we say this? Bad."

"I'm sorry Boston. I didn't know. Alright, we'll go after them."

"But then she'll jump to a conclusion."

"Let her. Every conclusion she's come up with was crap. The only thing they have to go on is the whispers of a psychic, and I'm not even sure he knows what the hell he's doing. We can take them. Let me get dressed." I got halfway up the first flight, when I turned.

"Look up Croder. Get the address and the directions."


	9. Chapter 9: Jerald Croder

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"Helen, it's freezing."

"I'm sorry, but I'm cold too. Just stay down."

Croder's place was our first stop. Somehow, it occurred to me she might use her aunt as an excuse.

Dad's black trench coat smelled like cigars and a bit of red wine, and I had grabbed it because it was far warmer than my coats. Not that that stopped me from layering a coat under it on top of my other clothes. The coat is actually too small for my Dad, he just never got rid of it because he was like that sometimes. Still it was really big on me, the hem brushing my heels, only an inch above the ground. The sleeves completely hid my hands, and I was thankful, because the snow was starting to fall again, and it was beginning to look like dusk, though further inspection of my watch confirmed that it was almost noon.

I have a stocking cap, one of the really long ones, in a dark red color. I had it pulled down to cover the tips of my ears, while buttoning the coat to my chin. Boston had enough room in the stretched collar to poke his head out once in awhile to give me directions.

It was almost ten minutes after setting out to find Pepper and her pal, in which I was slowly losing my temper. I had to brush snow from several signs, which did nothing to improve my temper when I made several false turns.

"If I don't kill her, I'll—"A cold blast of air forced me to shut my mouth, leaving my threat a little empty.

"We're halfway there." Boston said reassuringly from the inside of the second jacket. I was glad he was there, he was keeping me pretty warm, even though my nose kept getting bitten by icy wind.

"Great." I said with fake enthusiasm. "Hope mom doesn't get home before us, she's going to freak."

"She will anyway." He grumbled.

"She mean well." I defended.

"I know. Take a left after the next block."

My tennis shoes, which were gravely unsuited for running around in the snow, crunched the white snow while nimbly staying out of pools of slush. When I'm awake, I can be fairly graceful, I've noticed.

"I've decided," I announced, "That I hate February. No good can come of a month so early after the beginning of the year."

"Why not?"

"Because they do things like this, and they breed psychos like Pepper. I bet you anything that she would have never went loopy if snow hadn't blanketed us in February."

"You put a lot of stock in the mind bending properties of a date."

"Lots of dates are like this. Like the ones with flowers. You can never know what happens with dates."

"Are we still talking about the same kind of dates?" He asked, a little amused. It was good that he could stay amused even though he was so worried. I was worried too. I knew there was probably something he wasn't saying about this, and I wasn't sure I wanted him to say anything.

"I don't know what you're talking about. We almost there?"

"Crescent Street?"

I climbed up a small snow mound to brush snow off a sign. Slowly, as I scraped the icy stuff off, the 'C', then 'scent' became visible.

"And the last words are revealed for the prize of absolutely nothing-'res'. And the crowd goes wild. Alright, we're here, where now?"

"He lives at the end of Crescent street. Follow the road."

"Is it yellow brick, Mr. Oz?"

"What?"

"Never mind." I jumped off the mound and immediately started down the road. I didn't get very far.

"Ack!" Boston yowled when the ice wind blew straight through my jacket. He dug his claws into my skin.

"Ouch! Boston, that area is very sensitive, and if you don't want to go through life as an invalid, you'll remove those claws, and your paws, immediately." I growled.

Immediately the claws stopped digging in, and I folded my arms n front of me to try and keep off the cold. It wasn't working all that great. Pretty soon I was surrounded by massive drafts carrying large amounts of snow.

"This is getting bad." Boston was muffled as he tried to scrunch down.

"Okay, I'll run." Let me say, that that was a bit of a bad idea. I managed to get about halfway down that road when I slipped on a patch of ice and wiped out big time. "I hate the world, and shall exact my revenge accordingly." I grimaced as I felt my behind for broken bones. Just as I suspected: Nothing but sorely hurt pride and a diminishing patience.

"When I find you Pepper…I don't know what I'll do, but you are going to regret it. Make me come out of my house, in this stupid snowstorm, to track you down because you did something like that." I kept on grousing as I held a hand up to shield me from the snow beating down.

I saw something swirling in the air, and for a minute I thought my eyes were tricking me. Then I saw it more clearly.

It was a white bird. A white bird in the middle of a snowstorm. It looked like a male peacock.

I'm not all that sure I like peacocks.

This one strutted across the ground, head held high and tail seeming to move the currents of the wind.

"Holy…Boston, you need to look at this." I said, gaping as the bird began to move towards me.

Boston poked his head out of the collar of my coat, ears flat and whiskers weighted by the snow that fell on them. He stared at the bird. It stared back. Then it opened it's mouth and cried out, like it was crying for someone else.

"What is it?" I whispered.

"A broken dream and a sad belief." He whispered back, not once taking his eyes off of it. It stopped within a foot of me, watching me with eyes that were the most brilliant silver I have ever seen.

"It's sad." I whispered. The bird raised it's head to look me in the eye, which was frightening, I had never even come to contact with a bird this size. It was bigger than a peacock, almost as large, I think, as the emus I've seen on T.V, though I may be exaggerating. Everything my size seems big, and huge a few inches more.

"It was formed that way." He squinted through his glasses. "What? She, sorry. Pardon."

"Are you talking with her?"

"Sort of."

She didn't appear dangerous, well, behavior wise, so I took a step forward. Then I took a step around her and kept walking.

"What? Of course she can see you." Boston argued one-sidedly. "She can see me, can't she?"

I kept walking, fully aware the large bird was almost right on top of me. I could feel her scrutinizing the back of my head, and was relieved to remember that I did wash my hair last night. Of course, it was covered with the hat, but that was besides the point.

Pretty soon I came up on a large house, leaning with age. I walked up the steps, and gently knocked on the door, well aware the large bird had followed me. The snow beyond the porch was beginning to hurtle down with a vengeance, and I wondered if that wasn't partly to do with the bird's state of mind, whatever it was.

"Open up, please!" I yelled, knocking again. Soon I heard clunking inside the house. The door swung open, revealing a man I remember not seeing too long ago.

"It's you." I said, blinking. Then I glared down the collar of my jacket, not thinking I was in front of the old man. "Did you screw up the directions again?"

"Did not." He poked his head out to look the old man over. "according to the map, this is old man Croder's place."

The old man was staring at the cat with mingled awe, curiosity, and fear. I didn't quite understand the fear part.

"Melony…Melony, did you bring them here?" He whispered softly. The bird cooed at him. "I said I didn't want any visitors. I just want to die in peace!" He huffed and prepared to slam the door. I grabbed it, getting splinters in my palms.

"Wait! You know what that is? You're it's partner? I don't understand!"

"Go away, Missy! I don't want you here!"

"I just want to ask a few questions!" I protested. The older man was giving me a glare that spoke volumes.

"I don't care!"

"You do, you just don't know it yet." Boston hissed. The old man blanched and stepped back.

"What is that?!" He snapped as I let myself in. There was a flurry of feathers as Melony, I think is what he called the bird, came in after me.

"He's my friend. His name is Boston. What's your name?" I said cheerfully. It was good to be inside, but I quickly realized that every time the bird flicked it's tail, the temperature dropped. And above that, the entire house was freezing.

"You shouldn't be here." He growled. I noticed that he was just wearing a pair of slacks and an old denim shirt. Something clicked.

"Are you trying to freeze yourself to death?" I demanded, noticing for the first time the sad health he was in. His face was a deathly pale, and his hands were shaking badly.

"That's none of your business!" He snapped. "I don't have to answer for my actions to you." He unsteadily tried to stomp off. I followed helplessly.

"You have to put on some blankets, heat up some water…"

"You shut up! It has to be this way." He staggered into what looked like his living room. He was still the barking man from before the library, but he was dangerously unstable. Melony followed him, watching him like some sort of guardian.

"Hey, hey! Don't tell me to shut up! You can't just commit suicide."

"What do you know?" He said. "I'm seventy-four. I have a right to do what I wish."

"But…" I was totally lost for words.

"Besides, nothing's gonna help it now. I'm ready to sleep." He sounded so sure of himself.

I stared at him. "Oh, hell no. Don't be dying while I'm in the same room."

"Your fault for barging in." He said spitefully before he collapsed onto the ground.

"Damnit!" I hurdled over a small coffee table and pushed the old man over on his back. "You are a pain in the ass, old man!"

Melony dipped her head over my shoulder as I tried to cover the old man with a blanket that I dragged off an old rocking chair.

"What in heck are you thinking?" I was scared to death. I did not want him to die. I have never seen a dead man before. I don't care to.

"Going to be with…Melony." His skin was way too cold, his breathing too shallow.

He's not going to make it.

"Melony's right here!" I pointed to the bird. "If you die, you can't exactly be with her!"

"It'll…all be better…in a while." His breathing was getting shallower and I was beginning to shake myself. That was the last thing he said before he fell unconscious.

"Oh crap, oh crap, Boston!"

Boston snaked out of my coat.

"Find some blankets or something." I looked around for anything else I could cover him with.

"It won't do any good, Helen, he doesn't have the will to live."

"I know that, but we can't just not try!" I got up and ran out of the room, and realized soon enough that he had absolutely no blankets in his house. Not one. Obviously, he had wanted to die for a very long time.

After I searched and found nothing in the drawers of his room, (very odd, not even one scrap of clothing, not even in the closet.) I accidentally knocked something off the top of the dresser. My curiosity perked, I picked it up. It was a framed picture of a woman, neither beautiful or ugly, smiling with her arm around a much younger version of the old man. He was smiling, and I almost didn't recognize him.

"Helen!" I looked up. I walked quickly back into the living room.

I was not prepared for the scene I saw.

The bird seemed to be falling to pieces. Boston was absolutely terrified, his hackles raised. When he saw me, he rushed over and hid behind my ankles.

The beautiful white bird looked sadly at us as her feathers fell from her, exploding into little drops of water. This went on for several minutes, and then she herself disappeared leaving a crystal, cracked straight through, floating in the air, until it began to blink, until it blinked itself right out of existence.

"Helen…he's dead." Boston gulped.

"Is she?" I asked, still clutching the picture.

"I don't know…" He whispered. He was gripping my coat with his claws, looking grim.

I think I'm beginning to get a picture in my mind about Boston and his friends. And I'm beginning to feel very sad for them.

"Is that what will happen to you if something happens to that choker?" I asked him. He looked up at me with a look that clearly said he feared the worst. "I'll get it back. Don't worry."

His eyes traveled to the picture I had in my hands. He squinted at it. "What does it say?"

"It's a picture." I said, trying to avoid the sight of the old man on the floor.

"Yeah, but there's writing on the bottom."

I turned the picture over. Sure enough, on the cardboard backing of the frame, was writing.

'Jerald and Emily Croder, two mos. Pregnant with daughter Melony or son Jerald. 1973'

I walked over to Jerald Croder and placed the picture beside his face, which looked peaceful.

"I don't think what you did was right. But…I hope you're happy, I guess." I said, watching the water dry up with unnatural speed from the floor where Melony, the bird, had left. "I just hope you haven't caused more cases like yours."

"Let's go." Boston was tugging my coat. "The storm has cleared. The snow is melting."

"We should make a phone call."

"But—"

"Just stay close to me, and then we'll go looking for Pepper. She probably doesn't know what to make of the marble anyway, or her little psychic nimrod." A slow, bubbling fury was beginning to fester underneath my calm exterior.

I dialed a number for the services, and reported the death. They wanted me to stay, but I hung up before they finished. I had bigger things to deal with. Boston was more important than they were.

I walked out of the house, adjusting my gloves, and making sure Boston was well hidden. With more people came a greater risk of being spotted.

The faster I got the marble, the better.


	10. Chapter 10: Now and a Week Later

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The snow was crunching underneath my feet with a vengeance as I started catching up to a blonde who was coming my way, slightly ahead of her friend, who's eyes were widening at the sight of me. The blonde, on the other hand, was talking loudly.

"You know there's all sorts of weird stuff that goes on here, this may be our chance to blow the lid right off of it!" She said excitedly, not looking at me, but over her shoulder at her companion. I was five feet away from her when she finally turned her head and saw me. She stopped in her tracks, obviously not remembering who I was for a moment. Then recognition dawned.

"Hey, what are you- GAH!"

I punched her as hard as I could, which to most people, probably isn't all that hard, but it seemed to get her attention. She staggered back surprised. Then her face hardened.

"So it is some weird device, isn't it? Wally here said he got –Wait!"

I didn't let her finish before I tackled her to the ground.

"You royal pain in the ass psycho! Do you know what I've gone through today? You have pissed me off to no end, you know that?" I gritted through my teeth as I sat on her. "Give me back. The. Damn. Choker."

"Why are you so eager to get it back?" She threw an awkward punch at me. I ducked it. "You could have waited until the snow stopped and I would have returned it!"

"Like hell. That is a gift my mother gave me and it is mine. You had no right to take it, no matter what your paranoid delusions say!" I roared back.

My temper proved to undo me, because I got caught by the backhand she slammed across my cheek. I tumbled off of her into the snow, and scrabbled back up. She was doing the same.

"Give me back the choker."

"Tell me what it's for." She countered. I could feel my temper rising.

"Why should I tell you anything?" I hissed. "You stole from me."

"How do I know you didn't steal it?"

"I didn't!"

"Prove it!"

"Enough of this." I threw myself forward and we fell to the ground, this time both of us ready to swing our fair share of punches and kicks.

When we were finally dragged apart by several people who had been walking along the street and a police officer who had come just in time to see me sock Pepper in the nose, I had five scratches across my left cheek and a throbbing bruise forming under my left eye. My right cheek wasn't much better off, and my hair had been pulled. Plus some other bruises on my body, but not so much after I layered the clothing on so much.

Pepper looked about as bad as I did, except her nose was bruising and there was a bruise on her chin.

Served her right.

"What's going on here?" The policeman barked at us, making sure the crowd held us apart. He was probably afraid we'd tear each other a new one if they let us go.

Justified fear.

"Officer," I began much calmer than I felt, "this girl stole a choker from me this morning."

Pepper said nothing but glared at me.

"Is that so? Where is the choker now?" He cocked his grizzled head at Pepper. "Pepper? Tell me where the choker is."

Pepper glared at me again, then mumbled, "It's with Wally."

The officer turned to her friend. "Wally? Hand it over." He held out his hand, and Wally pulled out the choker and dropped it into the man's hand.

He gazed at it for a moment then shook his head. "Big fuss over something so tacky." He turned back to me. "Now, are you gonna want to press charges?"

"No, that's okay." I said realizing the danger. "I just want it back, I think I taught her something."

He handed the choker to me. "Looks like she taught you a thing or two as well. Well, Pepper, you're walking home with me, you too, Wally. And you, what's your name?"

"Helena."

"I don't expect anymore trouble out of you, understand?"

"Understood sir, thank you sir." I hurried back down the street after being released by the good Samaritans. I think it would have been better if they had just left me alone, I was holding my own in the fight, but I doubt that's Samaritan-ly.

"Mom is going to be so angry with me," I said as I blotted some blood on a tissue someone had shoved into my hands. Those scratches hurt; I think there should be a rule about long nails.

When I had gotten to a fairly deserted street about six blocks as the crow flies away from home, I put the choker on. "Boston? You okay?"

"I took a punch meant for you and it hurt." He growled. I could see his eyes glaring up from the inside of my coat.

"I'm sorry. I'll try to be more careful next time. You'd better get into the marble, we'll be there in five."

"Right." There was a sudden absence of warmth in my jacket and the marble felt cool as ever.

"Any ideas what I'm going to tell Mom and Dad?" I asked.

Parents are not my area of expertise.

"Great." The rest of the way was traveled in silence. The snowplows were already clearing snow off the road, and the blocks were becoming increasingly clear. When I came to my road, the snow was piled up on the sides and the old car was in the driveway.

"Crud." I said, staring at the car that signaled doom. "I am in so much trouble. You'd better stay quiet."

Not a yowl out of this cat.

I walked up the driveway, and was about to open the door when I heard shouting.

"I'm going out to look for her, like you should be doing!"

"Patricia, she will come home or the police will find her. What if she comes home and we aren't here?!"

"She should have stayed in the house! Something bad happened!" The voices died down into angry murmurs.

"Time to go face the inevitable." I muttered as I opened the door. I walked in while Mom was taking a deep breath, ready to start yelling again. But the yell got lost in her throat when she saw me, and she made a strangled noise.

"Helena? Helena, what happened to you?!" She seized my arm and dragged me further into the house. "You're all bruised and cut…Edwin, get a hold of the police, right this instance."

"They already know I'm here." I broke in fast, just as Dad snatched up the phone. "A police man sent me home. I was in a fight."

"A fight?" Mom goggled at me. "With who? Why?"

"Some girl, she took something from me and wouldn't give it back, I'm not hurt, don't worry, I'm sorry I didn't leave a note, and—omph!" My poor little body was crushed against my mother's.

"You scared me to death. Don't you ever do something like this again, you hear me?"

"Yeah." I managed to get out. After about five minute, Mom let me go.

"Get up to the bathroom and we'll take care of those scratches. Go on."

I trooped dutifully up the stairs before Mom added, "You're grounded."

Just as I suspected I would be, Ma, Just as I suspected I would be.

^**^*^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*^*^*^*^**^*^

I was grounded even worse when the blankets and clothes were returned to our house. Dad went off on a rant about letting people just have clothing in our closets. Mom told me that I wasn't allowed to let anyone in the house without her express permission.

Oh, and I'm forbidden to go out of the house except for school. Which was okay, because I didn't have anyplace to go anyway.

Valentine's day came and went and the weather was looking brighter all the time. Almost a week after the little blizzard, the snow was almost entirely gone, with a few obstinate patches one the ground. Now the ground was bare, but the ground was warming and green shoots should be popping up anytime now.

Pepper, when she come within sight off my window, which only saw a part of the street, gave the attic of my house some of the angriest glares, and some of the shrewdest. She still hasn't given up on the fact that I'm hiding something.

Speaking of which…

"I think Mario would have a bigger fan base if you could see the princesses better. I mean, if they wore something other than a frilly dress and did their hair different." Boston mused as he looked over the magazine that Mom had gotten me. I can't leave the house, but I shouldn't fall asleep. She picked up the first one she could, which was a gaming magazine, for me to read as an alternative to sleeping. As it was, Boston was reading it more than I was, and voicing his opinions.

I absently rubbed the cheek where I had been scratched and yawned. "So now you're an expert on fan bases?"

"I just know what I like, and I'd like to see something more…like this!" He flipped to a picture of Laura Croft.

"Yeah, and I bet you like her for her personality." I said dryly. He grinned and went back to his original page.

"How long before we can wander again?"

"To hear Mom tell it, never and eternity." I sighed and shifted my position. I was currently lying on my stomach on my bed, up on one elbow to look over Boston's shoulder when he wanted to show me something. He seemed to find everything interesting, especially articles on people.

"That's too bad, I'd like to go back to the library to pick up more books. Hey, Helen…"

"Hm?" I yawned again.

"Why didn't you press charges against Pepper? Didn't you want to?"

"I would have thought you would have figured up that much on your own." I said, settling my head into the pillow.

"I have figured out that if you had pressed charges that the marble would have been taken away and you'd have been subjected to a grave amount of questioning, which would have probably pulled Croder out of the works."

Croder. I read an article about him not three days ago. Apparently, he was the only survivor in his house after a storm hit. It took his wife and young daughter. After I read the article, I felt a lot more sympathy towards the old man, but I try not to think of it so much, because the bird, the storm, everything didn't make sense to me, and I doubt it would ever unless someone spelled it out.

"Helen, did you back down because of me?"

"I didn't back down- I made a dignified retreat. Besides, I won if I got the choker back."

He didn't say anything after that. He flipped aimlessly through the pages of the magazine as I drifted off to sleep.

^**^*^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*^*^*^*^**^*^

She sleeps.

She always seems to sleep when he had important questions to ask. She was akin to a lazy bum sometimes.

He twitched his ears and sucked on his tooth for a minute, regarding her now that she was asleep.

She may not come out and say it but she did it for him. It was…touching. And for all the grumpiness she showed she was quite a find, a believer that truly cared. So rare they are these days, from his notice.

Still, the events of the last week have been unnerving. And soon the world would be shaking from the combined beliefs of a few. It only took one wayward entity to shake civilization. Not all beliefs are good. But then again, she had already discovered this, had she not?

"This is only the beginning Helen…hopefully the seal shall not break more, we may have more on our plates than the keepers ever thought possible."


	11. Chapter 11: The Reason

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My pancakes were burning.

But in my defense, they would have come out great if the eggs on the next burner hadn't exploded. It had all started out so innocently. Helena, will you watch my eggs while I conveniently leave? Why, yes Janet, I'd be happy too. What dish are you making? Oh, I just call it Egg Surprise. Ciao!

Not good surprise. Not good at all.

How one manages to make explosive eggs, I don't know and don't care to.

But the eggs had exploded, and now I was trying to bat down the flames with a wet washcloth while people pointed and yelled.

"Move, Helena!" A guy pushed me to the side. He had an extinguisher which he used to its full potential when he got the stove off.

My pancakes were not saved. Neither was my composure. My face felt so red that I probably looked like a cherry.

Leo stepped back to survey the damage.

"Wow, when you screw up, you don't do it small, do you?" He said, grinning. That didn't help, I felt even worse.

"What's going on here?" Bellowed Mrs. Cortal. I groaned inwardly. The woman has something against me somehow, I think. She always jumps to the conclusion that the problems that occur are all of my fault, and to be fair, I do cause my fair share of trouble, being born with my mother's vices in cooking, only in different areas. I'm sure mother doesn't explode eggs, or doesn't when I'm around.

Mrs. Cortal glared at the large black and foamy dirty white mess on the stove. "Helena Harrick? What happened?!"

"The eggs exploded." I muttered, barely loud enough for her to hear. But somehow everyone in class heard and broke into titters.

"Exploded? How?"

"I'm not entirely sure, Ma'am. The eggs aren't mine, they're Janet's."

"Janet? Well, we'll see about that. I certainly hope you're not trying to shift the blame. Are you?"

Why do teacher's ask that question? Who, honestly, will answer that question truthfully if they are? What am I going to say, 'Yeah, teach, I'm trying to shift the blame, just wanted you to know?'

"No ma'am." I sighed.

"Clean this mess up! I'll talk with Janet when she comes back." She walked off.

"Bet she gets off with a slap on the wrist." I grumbled as I went for a spatula.

"Don't bet on it, eggs rarely explode unless provoked." Leo said in a tone of voice that was way too happy for a guy that was a senior. He had already put up the extinguisher in the time I was being scolded for the eggs.

"So says you." I muttered as I attacked the mess on the stove with malice. The exploding eggs had jumped out of the pan and landed on the stove, where they were putting up little resistance to spatula and cloth.

"Were these your pancakes?" He put the frying pan under my nose, where some round circles had been covered in white foam. His voice had all the seriousness of a private investigator.

"Yes, but they seem to have met an unfortunate demise." I said, considerably happier when I realized it would take me under ten minutes to clean the mess.

"It's so sad when that happens to innocent bystanders." He scraped the food off into the trash and put the pan in the sink. "Looks like you won't be sampling chow this time."

"I worked hard on those pancakes too."

"You're worrying about pancakes." He was laughing. "Those are one of the easiest things to make!"

"You don't know my lineage." I shot back, almost done.

"True, I don't." He agreed.

Leo Falldera. Dark tanned skin, dark hair, and taller than me by almost two feet, he was considered a heartthrob. To me, well, he's off limits, for one, having a girlfriend, but he's also a fairly good guy to hang out with. And one of the only people I have brought myself to call friend. I've been here for almost a month and a half and I just can't seem to settle enough around people to make friends.

Well, tall, dark, and fairly handsome Leo Falldera also has a great sense of humor, along with the (shocking) ability to cook. So, as he gets finished with his assignments so easily, he wanders over to my station to bug me. Not that I mind. It keeps me form taking myself too seriously.

When the stove was clean again, I started on the dishes.

"You know, some of the other cooks think you're a jinx."

"Surprise! Oh wait, I already had one of those." I said a little crossly.

"Moody, aren't you? Anyway, they've been saying that class hasn't been so fun without you doing something to mess up. That whole flour incident was the first one all year, and with you there's one a week!"

"I can't help it if everyone decided to be stupid around me." I protested as I put away a large dish to dry.

Leo opened his mouth to say something but the bell cut him off.

"Man. That things rings early in all my cool classes. Well, see ya, troublemaker!" He left as I finished cleaning the fourth to the last dish.

Kitchen rules say I couldn't leave until everything was cleaned. I was going to be late for my next class.

"Put your elbows into it, girl!" Mrs. Cortal snapped as she walked past my station. I sighed and began washing harder.

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"Saturday School? Helena…." Mom looked at me disapprovingly.

"Mom, I swear I didn't do it on purpose. In fact, it wasn't even my fault, this girl, her eggs exploded, and she never came back to class, and I had to clean the station, and I was late to class for the fifth time, and—"

"Okay, okay, fine. Don't go through yourself, honey. I wish you would have picked some other weekend though. Your father is coming back this Saturday!"

I looked down guiltily at the floor. Mom was really into going out with the entire family, and I messed up one of her days. I make my jokes and roll my eyes, but I don't actually mean anything by it.

"Well, Saturday School is only about four hours, maybe we can go see a movie or something. Alright, sweetie, go upstairs and get your homework done." She shooed me in the direction of the stairs. I went up them like a shot.

I opened the attic door carefully, just in case there was a feline behind it. When I saw he was sitting on the dresser, I opened it all the way and shut it behind me, leaving my bag near the dresser.

"Hard day, sweetie?" He mimicked my mother's voice. I shot him a look and plopped onto my bed. "Oh come now, don't be like that, darling. You've been absolutely don in the dumps for the last week. You're off grounding now, you should be happy!"

"I have Saturday School."

"And all of the good feeling I've promoted goes into a nosedive and bursts into flames." He jumped off the dresser and scampered over to where my face was about to fall off the edge of the bed. "Well, cheer up. It could be worse!"

"How?"

"You could have it with Pe—mrher!" My hand clamped over his muzzle, preventing him from saying the last word or words.

"Don't say anything. At all. You know, the worst jinx a person could have is if someone says it could be worse and follows it up with how. That 'how' always comes true."

"Then why did you ask?" He asked when he pushed my hand away.

"I figured it would be something that could never happen. But that is still possible." I said severely. "Never, ever does the 'how' get to be possible. Understand?"

He snorted. "You put a lot of stock in superstition for someone who likes to look at the facts."

"Never hurt anyone, as long as you keep a level head about it." I muttered as I rolled onto my back.

I felt Boston climb onto the bed, and a second later, two blinking green eyes hovered above mine. "Something bothering you? You seem a little more agitated than usual."

"Dad's coming this Saturday."

"And you feel guilty."

"Yeah."

"Well, like you said, it wasn't your fault." He said, tilting his head. His black earring waved dangerously above my brows.

I didn't ask him how he knew that. I had long ago accepted that his hearing was better than he let on.

"Hmm." I said in agreement.

"Can I come?"

"Hunh?"

"Can. I. Come?" He said every word separately and carefully.

"Why would you want too?"

"I've never been to school before. Besides, you need someone to talk to if there is no one you know!"

"Yes, and they'll think I've lost the Fruit Loops in my cereal bowl if I start having a one sided conversation with my necklace."

"They say that the truly intelligent and always with a bit of insanity."

"You butter me up, but I'm still leaning towards 'nope'." I closed my eyes.

Boston moved around the bed, and I felt his whiskers tickle my nose. I opened one eye and saw him, drooping ears and whiskers, looking pathetically back at me. I quickly closed my eye again.

"Please Helen? I won't cause any trouble…well, I won't lie, I'll try not to cause trouble. And you can't say it will be boring!"

"True."

"And I can be great company! Helen, I'm always stuck in your room. I want to see more people than the little monsters next door and your mother, and I want to see other things than the never changing scenery of the five streets you haunt on the weekend and this room. Please?"

I sighed. "Alright, okay, I'll take you with me. But you cause trouble and I am never taking you anywhere again, got it?"

"Got it!"


	12. Chapter 12: The Punishment

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"Now look Honey, your father and I are going out to lunch, call us if you need anything, and are you absolutely sure you can walk home?"

"Exercise will do me good mom. Besides, I want to check out this side of town anyway. Have fun." I got out of the car and smoothed down my jacket, said goodbye to my mother, and slammed the door shut. She watched me until I got to the doors and went inside before she drove off.

The halls were hauntingly silent, without as much as a sneaker scuff from some person not paying attention to their feet.

I kept walking until I found a door covered in construction paper (for reasons I do not know) and looked at my watch.

Seven Fifty.

"We're early."

Don't you mean you? I thought we discussed not being 'us'.

"Whatever." I knocked on the door. When no one answered, I was going to knock again, but the door whipped open and I was face to face with a much older woman.

"Fresh meat! What are you doing here? Get in trouble?" She cackled as she held the door open for me.

Mrs. James was wearing a black skirt and a bright yellow blouse. She looked like a demented wasp.

"You're the first one here. Grab a seat. Heh heh. You picked a horrible day to get yourself thrown into weekend prison."

There were several round tables, and I sat at the one in the middle. The two other tables were bare, and I wondered what kind of Saturday school this was.

"Aren't we supposed to get separate desks?" I asked, scooting the chair closer to the table.

"You sure are." She said, grinning.

I was beginning to have slight misgivings.

A loud banging sound outside the door caused me to jump, and a guy in full piercing came in.

"Isn't that why you got thrown in here the first place?" Mrs. James asked slyly when he sat down at the table closest to the door.

"I'm showing my individuality."

"Like the rest of your friends?" She retorted as several of his friends walked in. They were pierced just like him, and sat down at the same table.

Several more kids came in, some looking like me, curious about the arrangement, and staring at the pierced kids. These sat at the table farthest from the door, away from the others. The others seemed to know those guys, and sat with them, joking and making a lot of noise.

A couple minutes later, after Mrs. James had reached over with a meter stick and swatted one of the louder ones, a few more walked in, the most interesting of which was a girl with the most bizarre fashion sense I've ever seen.

She was black, and she was wearing a straitjacket. An actual, black straitjacket. With shorts, purple no less. She was also wearing flip flops and was wearing blue eye shadow and dangling alien earrings.

Oh, and she was about six feet tall.

I mean, holy cow. I feel appropriately minute.

"Nikki, have a seat and stop dramatizing yourself!" Mrs. James barked.

Nikki looked around and set her eyes on me and grinned wickedly. I blinked at her, and then looked behind my shoulder, wondering if there was a funny poster or something. The chair next to me screeched, and I looked to see Nikki reclining on it next to me, grinning at me. I was startled to see fangs, but had to kick myself mentally when I realized they were plastic.

She's a freak!

I silently agreed with him.

"Alright! We all here?" A man had somehow materialized in front of the room. I stared at him.

I seem to be doing a lot of that.

"Good! Now, I'm Mr. Gheller, and today we will be having group discussions."

Mrs. James looked like she was bearing holding back a ton of laughter.

"We will be discussing why you are here."

"We know why we're here." The first pierced boy grinned. "Setting off firecrackers. Not a crime."

"It is when you do it in the classroom." Mr. Gheller said reprovingly. "And you, Sean, should know that."

"Details." Sean waved it off.

"Now, to those of you who are new to this, sadly not as many as I wished, I am required to try to help repeat offenders with their problems-"

"So, basically what you're saying is that you want to get a little counseling in for all of us so the people that are new never want to come back and face the embarrassment and hope the ones that aren't finally get tired of your yapping and stop." Nikki said, managing to get the entire speech out without any impediment due to the fangs noticeable.

"You have a very blunt and ineloquent way of putting it. You are of course, correct. Embarrassment is a fine tool to use in the war against delinquency. Take the fangs out of your mouth, Nikki, you are not a vampire, no matter how many Dracula movies you watch."

"You say that now." She muttered as she pulled the fangs out and pocketed them.

"Now, you will all introduce yourselves." Mr. Gheller started at the closest table to the door. I didn't listen to them at all, wondering why Mr. Gheller was counseling when he was obviously not the school counselor, and it wasn't until an elbow was shoved forcefully into my ribs that I noticed that it was my turn.

"Uh…Helena Harrick." I fumbled.

"I see. I take it you got in trouble for not paying attention in class?" Mr. Gheller said, smiling thinly.

"No, sir. I was late to class one time to many."

"Because you weren't paying attention to the time?"

"Because somebody's eggs exploded." And that someone is not here, which I have noticed very quickly, and I am not pleased about that.

There were a couple of snorts, and Nikki was looking at me with what looked like admiration.

Mr. Gheller looked a little speechless. "And how did that happen?"

"I'm…not entirely sure." I said truthfully. Mr. Gheller shrugged and went on.

"Alright, we have all been introduced. Now, I want you to learn more about your neighbors at your table, and be honest." He turned to talk with Mrs. James.

"So, neighbor…" Nikki squinted at me. "What do you like to do?"

Sleep. Boston sniggered. I reached up to the marble and tapped it.

"I like to read."

"Ever read Dracula?"

"Yes."

"Really?" She seemed interested now. "You like horror novels? Movies?"

"Sometimes."

"My hero is Frankenstein. Misunderstood genius, not a madman. You know, that was the name of the scientist, not the monster."

"I heard that."

"You don't talk a lot do you?"

"Sometimes."

"You ever talk in something beyond two syllable answers?"

"Maybe."

She stared at me. I held it as seriously as I could before I cracked a smile. Then she laughed.

"You were messing with me! Okay, okay, you're a cool girl, shorty. Helena, right?"

"Yeah."

"I love your necklace. It looks like one those forbidden treasure pieces in the Mummy Tombs. Where'd you get it?" She gestured at it.

"I found the marble, and my mom made it a necklace."

"Never seen a marble look like that before. Kinda like my bracelet." She pulled up the sleeve of her jacket (a good ways-the straitjacket may not have been wrapped and secured, but the sleeves were really long.) and pointed at the blood red triangle set into a tacky tin bracelet. "I do a little jewelry work, I found this baby sitting in a tree, would you believe it? And I had this piece of junk arm band thing and decided to spice it up."

"It looks good." I said, trying to be nice. Actually, it had a simple, yet incredibly warped appearance, at least to my eyes. The bracelet itself was nothing special, but it looked as if the setting was burning it and bending the metal.

"No it doesn't, but it gives it a forbidden treasure kind of look, doesn't it?" Obviously, she was really into her horror genre.

"Okay, now we will talk about how we can improve!" Mr. Gheller's voice cut through the building noise so well that some people winced.

"Let's see…Actually become Wolf-girl, never cook again. I think me and Helena figured it out, can we go?"

"Sit down and be good Nikki. Please don't cause more trouble than you do at school."

"I don't cause trouble! Exhibiting my likes is no crime! The head cheerleader walks around in her outfit everyday of the week, why can't I just do my thing like her?"

"School rules state that you must not display an exhibitionist manner, which you do when you walk in dressed like the Creature from the Black Lagoon."

"I don't have that costume yet." Nikki said sulkily. From the costume or being scolded, I don't know.

"Yes, well, like it or not, you are very disruptive. Now, how can you improve, since you decided to volunteer?"

"You can't tell me a cheerleader always in uniform isn't exhibitionist." She said, not answering the question.

"She does not wear it everyday. Alright. Helena?"

"I will never offer to watch someone's food again. Let some other poor sap have exploders." I said, promising silently to follow through with the statement.

Here, here, sister!

"I don't really think you two are taking this seriously." Mr. Gheller said severely.

"We're supposed to?" Nikki asked.

And it went downhill from there.

"Get out of here, we don't want to see you for another week!" Mrs. James called after the crowd of kids making their escape through the halls.

Mr. Gheller had yelled himself hoarse in the first hour, and then assigned Sean another five Saturdays when he overheard the boy telling the others how to download prank programs off the net and install them on school computers. Between the smart comments and the 'innocent' questions, I was supremely grateful that the man hadn't rewarded us all with a couple extra days.

Mrs. James didn't make things any better with her snorts of laughter and half audible comments, either.

"Hey, where you going after this?" Nikki asked, towering over me.

"I'm going to look around town and then go back to my house in time for dinner and a movie."

"Cool. Hey, you wanna come over to my house?"

"Um…" I wasn't quite sure about that. "Don't most Slasher films start out this way?"

She burst out laughing. "Okay, I'll give you that one. Nah, I need some help helping Grandma blockade the monsters back into the cellar."

"Excuse me?"

"Grandma had a little too much fun when she was younger, and now she thinks the monster that killed Elvis is in her cellar. Other than that she's perfectly sane. But every month right before the full moon, she gets me to help her lock up the cellar."

"Ah."

"It'll be fun! Besides, you are the only person who knows anything about the classic monsters that I know of. We should like, have a movie night."

"You make friends really easily, don't you?"

"Not really. You're one of the only people that weren't so freaked out by me that you look at me like I'm growing an extra head that looks like Barbara Streisand on a bad day."

"….Right. Well, tempting as your offer is, I have to decline."

"Old fashioned parents?"

"Just about." I said.

Has more to do with you, Vampire girl. Boston said. Another one that had been less than helpful with his little comments. It's hard to keep a straight face talking to the teacher when someone is making ribald comments about said teacher without prejudice.

"Course, I don't mind freaking people out. It's fun." She said, talking mostly to herself.

I didn't comment on this.

She kept musing on this train of thought until we got outside. Sunlight seemed to bring her out of her reverie.

"Well, have fun wandering. I gotta go home. There's a really bad insect flick on the old movies channel after the Revenge of the Mist, and I don't want to miss it. Ciao!" She waved and jogged off.

Another interesting girl.

"Don't say stuff like that, you'll create a jinx." I muttered as I turned to wander down a street opposite to the one she had taken.

Since when do I cause you trouble?

I didn't comment on that one, either.


	13. Chapter 13: Dinner and a Movie

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"Trouble making? Well, I don't expect to hear anything more about that, you understand?!"

"Yes, sir." I said, careful not to sound sulky. Sulkiness was a one way ticket to grounding, and I just got off that.

Dad gave me a significant glare before returning to his menu.

It was a pretty nice place, with sit down dining and a selection of wines, and the sign before we came in had said Danello's. I assume Danello is a name in the management.

My little walk around town earlier today had come up with a little window shopping and a few restaurants I had never heard of but want to try, but other than that there really hadn't been anything. I found the mall. It was closed for repair. Apparently the snowstorm awhile back had messed up some of the electrical system and no one caught it until a fire got set off. I don't believe anyone was hurt.

Italian cuisine was a big thing here, I noticed as I looked at my own menu. There were a few French dishes too. And lots of American.

I steered away from the French dishes. I don't think I'm brave enough to try a dish from a restaurant I've never eaten at when I have no idea what the dish is. Maybe next time.

The Italian dishes I did know, though. Shrimp Primavera was my main choice.

Oooh…Fish. Boston ogled happily.

Probably should get the large plate.

"Can I take your order?" A bright young brunette waitress popped up at my father's elbow, startling us all.

"Yes," Dad folded his menu importantly. "I will have—" he said a French name that I'm absolutely sure he butchered and that I promptly forgot how to pronounce, but the girl was totally unfazed. Mom ordered a Linguini and I ordered my Primavera.

She was gone when we ordered our drinks, and Mom started fiddling with her napkin, uncomfortable with the silence at our table.

"So how is your work, darling?"

"Horrible! Some quack from some village came to the office and told my supervisor that that site, you know, the one we were at before we lived here? He came and told my supervisor that we had disturbed some sort of powerful seal and we would be plagued with death."

"That's horrible!" Mom's hand flew up to her chin and she looked aghast. I started listening a little more closely.

"Not really, apparently this fellow was…what did the old Poe Obsessor call it? 'Chasing the Dragon'."

"What does that mean?" Mom asked.

"He was on drugs, Mum." I informed her.

Dad shot me a quick look. "Yes. Well, anyway, apparently this fool was so bad in that way that they had to cart him off to the hospital. I heard this all third hand, of course, but we've been having a devil of a time trying to get any workers from that area. Now we'll have to get people from out of country to help out, and that will be very expensive, and if we have to get second rate scientists, we may never be able to learn all that old ruin has to offer. At least that's what the sales pitch is. Personally I don't think anything useful will come from that rock pile."

I beg pardon?!

My hand jerked a little reflexively, but I stopped myself from reaching my hand up to touch the marble choker.

"Then why spend the resources, if there seems to be nothing to gain?" Mom questioned.

"Apparently one of the senior scientists thinks that there was great religious significance in this particular temple. Apparently, the team that this particular scientist was leading found some stones telling about the end of death being locked away in it. Trash really. Everyone agrees the Fountain of Youth is a fable." His face brightened when our food was brought out. "Ahh! Smells fantastic, I'm starving!"

I thanked the waitress after she placed a plate of wonderful smelling Primavera in front of me. She flashed me a grin and left.

I poked the dish a little, thinking over what Dad just said. A few interesting points I would have to ask Boston about later. I started eating after Dad and Mom had started in on their respective dishes.

Almost ten minutes later, the dish had been picked clean by Boston and I, though he ate most of my shrimp. But I did get a lot of the noodles, so I guess I can't complain.

Except that he ate almost ALL of my shrimp.

"Honey you shouldn't bolt your food down." Mom said disapprovingly.

"I was hungry, and it was good." And I was being helped by a floating cat.

Reasonably, I did not add that last part.

"That's no excuse. You eat too much and you'll lose your lovely figure and make yourself very sick."

"I don't exactly have a figure Mom." I said, feeling the tips of my ears turn red.

"Yes you do. How many boys talk to you at school? Do you have a boyfriend yet? When are you going to bring him over for dinner?"

I almost asked her if she would cook, but stopped myself. If I knew, it wouldn't be a surprise.

"I don't have a boyfriend, Mom."

She sniffed. "It's just because you're shy. Don't worry, you'll find the perfect man."

This has to be embarrassing for you. Boston said with a cackle in his voice.

I made a mental note to beat his golden furred backside.

"I'm sure I will Mom." Yes, you've totally inspired me. You know what? I think I'm going to go run out of this restaurant in pursuit of the perfect man. He doesn't know I'm chasing him yet, but as soon as I find him, he'll be hard pressed not to notice.

"But what about school? Have you made many friends?"

Off on subject and back onto one that has been visited many times.

"I met a girl at school today." Dad snorted loudly, which I took as 'girls in Saturday School do not make good friends' but considering my past luck with girls my age, I can only keep going up from here. "She likes horror movies and horror novels."

"And what was she in for?" Mom asked, trying to keep our conversation going while she finished her Linguini.

"Disrupting her class for acting like a vampire."

Dad choked on the drink he was sipping. "You aren't actually friends with her, are you?"

"No, more like acquaintances." I said, drinking my water.

Dad looked more at ease with that, but still miffed that I considered her an acquaintance.

"Anyone else?" Mom persisted, dabbing her mouth with a napkin.

"A guy named Leo, another guy named Tracey, and a girl named Joey, but Tracey and Joey went on this little fieldtrip thing with their youth group and won't be back in town for another week."

"And Leo?"

"He's a senior that helped me put out the eggs."

"Ah. Well, you'll have to make sure that list grows, we don't plan on moving anywhere soon, so you should have all the time in the world to spend with your friends." Mom said a little more benevolently than I'm used to. I would have suspected something, but I wrote it off as shock attributed to seeing Dad again.

"You ever get a boyfriend, I would like to meet the young man." Dad informed me.

Yeah, Mom's home cooked meal and a meeting with Dad? I'll be lucky if he tells one of his friends we've broken up before he books it for a coastal retreat

"Okay." I said, careful to sound completely neutral.

"Check please." Dad said to the waitress as she passed by. "I know you will sweetheart, you've never kept anything from us before, not like some other ungrateful spawn."

I quickly drank the rest of the water.

All of the movies at the Triple Majestic(the number one theatre in town) were totally uninteresting. That's putting it nicely. Putting it truthfully, I'd have to say that I knew they stunk without even watching them. I've seen the previews, and I think I'd have a better time watching a bad bug movie with Nikki.

My parents thought basically the same thing, though there was a time when they teetered on watching the sappy romance movie, but fortunately they thought it was too deep for me, so they decided to rent a movie instead. I have to say I'm glad, because I've read the novel that the movie was based on, and it was a snorer.

This is pathetic in itself considering my constant affliction.

So we were messing around, trying to find a good movie, well, I was messing around, I'm not all that sure what my parents do in situations like these, and I found myself wandering down the comedy aisles. Some I had heard of, others I had never seen before. Some looked pretty lewd, and I stayed away from those as a general rule.

Actually, I found myself picking up animal movies and detective movies. I looked at the backs, looking for one that my parents may pick up. I was on The Pink Panther before Mom caught me and dragged me away to help her decide on three movies.

I am almost positive we are allowed to check out more than one, but she doesn't seem to care. One movie will do it, I guess.

First movie was this romantic English comedy that looked vaguely interesting the way that a wandering cat will look vaguely interesting when seen from your window when you have nothing to do.

Second was an Action Adventure that I had to check my mother to make sure it was actually her standing there. Normally she won't even look at the stuff, but I guess every once in awhile…

The last was a drama, about a woman with an embroidered shirt. At least, that's what I got from her pained expression on the front cover. On the back it told about how she fell in love, lost her love in tragic accident, etcetera, etcetera.

I put my vote in for the Action, but it was obvious the first one would win out.

When we left, romantic comedy in tow, Mom was hanging off Dad's arm and he opened the door for her and I opened my own door and got in. We drove off a few minutes later and went cruising home.

I think the Action one would have been better for our developing minds. Boston muttered. Maybe I should have voted. Then we could have a tiebreaker!

I really didn't think that would work.

I leaned my head on the cool glass of the window and stared out at the passing streets. We were just passing the mall, which still had the large 'CLOSED' signs over it.

"I hope no one was hurt in the fire." Mom said conversationally.

"I'm sure you would have heard reports, darling." Dad kept his eyes on the road.

The streets were really dark, and I could barely see anything except the porch lights that had been left on.

I was being lulled to sleep when Mom just suddenly started screaming.

"EDWIN! LOOK OVER THERE! LOOK!"

"What?!" Dad jerked his head over. "There's nothing there!"

"There was! There were these…things in that person's yard!" She said, looking behind to look out the rearview window.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I saw them! Go back!"

Dad put the car in reverse and drove backwards until Mom told him to stop. We looked into the yard to see…

Absolutely nothing.

"Are you all right, Patricia?"

"I swear I saw…I must just be tired. I saw that poster at the theatre and the light was playing tricks on me. That must be it. I'm sorry, darling."

"Quite alright, Patricia, in this part of the town with these trees," He gestured to the large bent over oaks, "I've seen a few things too. Let's go home and watch a movie and forget about monsters in yards, shall we?"

"Alright." Mom settled back into her seat.

I kept looking out into the darkness, wondering if I couldn't get a glimpse of what she saw. But Dad was right. In the yard where Mum had seen her creature, there was an old willow that was floating side to side, making it look as if snakes were weaving in the wind. More than likely, that was what she saw.

We soon left it behind as the car moved forward again, a little faster than usual. Before long we were home, sitting in the living room and watching the movie that wasn't as bad as what I thought it would be.

But it still wasn't all that great either.


	14. Chapter 14: Movie Night

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I collapsed backwards onto my bed and snuggled down into the pillow, fully intent on letting the world ignore me.

Apparently, however, the world had other plans.

"Good afternoon Helen. How was your day?"

I opened my eyes slowly to see the now very familiar sight of Boston's whiskered visage peering me in the face.

"Great."

"It doesn't sound great. Why don't you pour out your heart to a furry psychiatrist?"

"There are none in my price range."

"Cold. I meant me. So, tell me how your day was, and how it made you feel."

"Don't make me boot you downstairs."

"You don't own any boots. I checked. Come on Helen, what's bugging you?"

"I think I failed a test in math. The cooking woman got onto me again, this time for making more of a mess than the other people. Leo wasn't there to make jokes. Joey and Tracey are still away and I didn't have anyone to talk too, and I caught Pepper giving me dirty looks and whispering to her little friends, and I think I'm going through a moody adolescent teenage angst stage and I'm just bummed."

He blinked at me for a moment, then grinned into my face.

"You know I still love you."

"Yeah, you say that now, but wait until I start getting the munchies and have sudden mood swings, and then you'll be singing a different tune." I said, trying to hide a smile.

"You can't stay upset for long, Helen, you know I won't let you. Hey! What did Nikki say? Movie night? You know, school is cancelled tomorrow, for that teacher conference thing, we can have a movie night!"

I groaned and clapped a hand over my eyes. "Why did you bring up the teacher conference? You are so horrible!"

"I was trying to be optimistic. It takes two. Come on, we'll get your Mom in on it! I bet she'll want to do something other than work in a kitchen all afternoon cooking for us."

I didn't answer. In reality, it was more of a token resistance. I thought the idea was great, and he was right, I think Mom could use a break. I could walk to the video store, buy some fast food, and be back before five, if I hurried.

"Okay."

"Yes!" Boston whooped and clapped his hands. "What are we waiting for? Let's go pop the question!"

"Please refrain using that phrase in reference to my mother ever again." I said, getting up, putting on the choker, and trooping down the stairs. I didn't even have to look behind me to know that Boston had returned to the marble around my neck. Now when he was in the marble, I could feel it. When he wasn't there, the marble actually felt empty.

I found Mom in the kitchen, poring over a book with a large cake on the front. I can only assume that means that it was a cookbook.

"Hey mom…" I related Boston's idea as if it were my own, with a great deal of elaboration and daughterly concern for my mother, if not for my own boredom.

And to my surprise, she actually said yes and forked over almost forty dollars for the cause.

"Pick up some good movies. Are you sure you want to walk?"

"Yeah, I know the way, it won't take me all that long. There's this Mexican place on the way, what would you like me to pick up?"

"Pick me up some of those soft tacos, honey. And be careful. And utilize the Protection System if you need to. Don't hesitate."

"I won't. I'll be back in an hour and a half."

"Okay, make sure you take a key, I'll go to the store and pick some stuff up, we'll have a girl's night."

"Okay. Bye!" I walked out the door with an odd feeling that there were a couple of things different with Mom. I shook it off. Maybe being with dad all the time had caused her to be Stepford Wife, but now that she was on her own with me most of the time she decided on losing part of her appearance.

Can't say it's a bad change. I don't think I ever knew Mom like soft tacos or even knew what they were until this moment.

Protection System? Boston asked.

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you. Secret Mother/Daughter Bonding."

I don't get it.

"If I'm ever in trouble, you will." I said with a slight grin. "What movies should we pick up?"

Comedies and Action. Romance really rubs my fur the wrong way.

"I know what you mean."

We chatted a lot when the streets were mostly deserted, and before long we were only a few streets away. That's when I noticed the massive old oaks swaying with the breeze.

"I would have loved to grow up here. These are perfect climbing trees."

I didn't know you liked to climb trees.

"All kids like to climb trees, even the scared ones. The ones that say they don't are in serious denial. See, trees are kind of like, towers, I guess. You can scale them and see things you wouldn't normally would on the ground. You can make believe it's your fort, or your tree house, and you're a kid, so it doesn't matter if it's true or not, you know?"

Waxing poetic, are we? Boston asked.

"Yeah, I guess. It's the atmosphere and the company. It makes me say weird stuff. Like-where's the willow?"

Oh…Excuse me? I don't think I understand.

"No, no, the willow. Remember when Dad was here on Saturday, and we went down this street, and Mom thought she saw something in the yard with the willow? This is the street. Where's the willow?"

Did we pass it?

"No, we didn't. I was almost asleep. But I still remember the basic run of the street. A couple of blocks down we make a turn and that street runs down till it hits the Video Shack. We were on this street, and we go down it about six blocks before turning off into the way back to the house. We went back pretty far, so it would have to be somewhere in the beginning to middle. We are there. Where is the willow?" I said, looking around. I started walking down the side I had seen the willow and examining the lawns. I stopped at a large brown house.

The grass on its lawn had been flattened in an almost octopus like shape, only there were two tentacles too many. And the ground had been lightly scored, as if something had sat in the same place for quite awhile and then moved, taking small bits of the ground with it.

"Okay, either the owner of this willow fed it way too much miracle grow or…I have no idea. Unless…one of your pals has come over to play."

That could be a valid assumption. I don't think it was a tree. Look, only the grass and a little ground are upset. Like someone standing in the same place and then deciding to move. If it was some sort of true plant, it would have dug the roots in deeper, and would have left holes. Boston pointed out.

"Great." I said. "Well, if it's not causing any trouble like setting blizzards on people, I don't see what we have to do about it. Let's go get some movies."

Is that wise? Boston asked. Not that I'm into hunting my own kind, but you saw the troubles the last one caused. If not checked, the same thing could happen.

"Like I said before, when I explained my point of view, if it isn't doing anything right now except moving and leaving grass indentions, I don't see the problem. Now, let's hurry before Mom decides to go cruising down these streets because we're twenty minutes late."

I set off before he could comment on anything else. We got to the video store in record time, and I ended up checking out four movies, two Action Adventures, the new hottest to video, a comedy about a girls who keeps finding dogs, or something like that, I picked it up because the other one was about trees, and I'd had just about enough of them, thanks. The last was an Action Adventure Comedy, making it the best of both worlds.

The clerk complimented me on my choice, sounding totally unenthusiastic and as if it was part of his job to do it, which probably was. Well, it wasn't as if I was getting what he liked anyway.

I totally ignored the tree lined street on my way back, and stopped at a Taco Hut, and ordered a few pounds of food, and set off, stomach growling big time as I smelled the food in the bags.

"Taco Hut? Please don't tell me the burritos taste like pizza." I said to myself when I was a safe distance from people.

Blech. Boston commented as we walked.

The last few streets passed by in a flash, and I strolled down our street, all thoughts of trees and troubles fading effectively from my mind.

I walked up the driveway and noticed Mom had come back from the store, as the care was parked a few feet forward than when I left. Actually, that was a little close to the garage. She could have hit the garage door like that.

I shrugged it off. I'm sure when I start driving I'll take out more than my share of trashcans and mailboxes.

I opened the door and locked it behind me.

"I'm home Mom!" I called as I shifted the weight of the bags. I frowned when I didn't hear anyone answer back. "Mom?"

Be careful. Boston cautioned. It isn't like her to not answer back.

I walked through the hall past the living room, making a bee line for the kitchen.

I looked into the kitchen, and mom had her back to me, doing something at the counter.

"Mom."

She still didn't look around.

"Mom!"

Still no answer.

"MOM, TALK TO ME DAMNIT!" I roared. I figured, yelling at Mom and cussing, if she doesn't answer that, she has to be dead.

She whirled around so fast she partially lost her balance and had to mill an arm to catch her balance. In her hand she had a glass, and I caught an open bottle behind her. She gaped at me for a moment, than a hand(the one not holding the glass) flew to her chest. "You scared me, I didn't hear you come in, baby. I didn't mean to upset you, I was just having a drink." Her voice had a slight rambling quality.

Mom doesn't drink, and she doesn't let me get off on a yelling and swearing bit with just a 'sorry you were upset baby;' she must be freaked out about something.

"Mom, are you okay?" I set the bags on the table. "You don't look that good."

"I'm just a little stressed, sweetie. How was your trip?"

"You are avoiding the subject, of which is you. Did something happen while I was gone? Mom, what happened?"

She looked upset and set the glass on the counter behind her, and corked the bottle and opened a cupboard and set the bottle exactly in the indentation the bottle had left.

"I was going to share this with your father, but he didn't want to drink it because he had to ride on a jet to some country, I forgot which one."

"Again, avoidance of subject. Spit it out, Ma."

"Can you take care of yourself if I leave?"

I blinked at that question. I don't ever want to answer that question, not in the way she was asking. Then I narrowed my eyes.

"Is someone threatening you, Mommy?"

"No, no." She waved the question away. "It's just that I've been seeing things."

Happens when you dip into the fine wine. Boston said, unable to keep his mouth shut.

"What kind of things?"

"I keep seeing this thing, and when I look again, it is just a tree. It's so stupid, I'm probably just having movie flashbacks, and my mind is playing tricks on me when I don't have anything to think about, I don't know why I'm acting like a scared bunny rabbit." She laughed weakly. "Let's forget about it. Why don't you tell me what you got from the movie rental store?"

Mom had watched two movies and then announced she was going to bed. She looked remarkably better, and had convinced herself she was just seeing things and needed to occupy her mind more.

I, on the other hand, was sitting on the couch with a large bowl of popcorn on my lap, barely touched but still warm. I had picked up the habit of biting my thumbnail when I'm really bothered by something. I rarely ever have this bad habit anymore, but tonight it had miraculously reappeared.

A paw reached into my bowl and claimed a few pieces of extra buttery popcorn, and I glanced down to see Boston pop the first into his mouth, delicately keeping his whiskers free of the butteryness.

He had been fairly silent through the evening, not even making any dents in my popcorns, at least not that I could see. The choker was still around my neck, just as it had been for the last seven hours.

"I don't believe it was a coincidence." I said, liberating a few pieces myself, eating them all at once.

"I didn't believe you would." Boston agreed.

"We are going out tomorrow and we're going to try to track it down."

"What are we going to do if we find it? Ask it nicely to go away? It may be less than acquiescing."

"It is scaring my mom. I will take care of my parents. If I have too, I will set it on fire, to make my point. No one threatens my parents, especially not some walking tree. I'm a much laid back person, Boston, but this is where I draw the line."

Boston watched me, eyes betraying nothing. I looked at the T.V screen and ate my popcorn.

"Yes." He said softly. "I believe you do."


	15. Chapter 15: The Traversing Arboreal

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I watched from the window as Mom pulled out of the drive.

Today's excuse for Mother—I'm going to go see if I can make friends at the park. Actually, that's the reader's digest version. Mom would have locked me in my room for the next three years of my life until she could no longer legally hold me against my will if I gave her that line. So I glossed it over (quite a but) with some window shopping, some lunch in the park, so on, so forth.

Of course, if I let her know what I was actually planning, she would have stayed home for mother-daughter bonding time under the excuse that we obviously weren't having enough.

I think we could do without, actually.

When she disappeared down the street, I pulled on my old coat(it had rained last night-the snow had left but there was still water to be found.) and adjusted my choker so it peeked out of the blue denim shirt I put on with my black pants this morning.

I walked out of the house and jogged all the way to the street that I had seen the indentations yesterday and tried to figure out which direction the tree had gone.

The rain was an extreme vice. It had washed away a good bit of the evidence there was actually a tree there.

And all indication of where it was going.

"I should have known this would happen. How are we going to track it if we can't find tracks?"

You could find someone that actually knows how to track.

"I would but considering the fact that it's what, twelve, fourteen feet tall, I don't think it would be that hard to follow, especially since it's a walking tree. People tend to notice little things like a traversing arboreal."

Traversing Arboreal? 

"If I'm going to play detective, I might as well be ostentatious while I do it." I commented and leaned back on my heels, cupping my chin in my hands. "Now, if I were a walking tree, where in the world would I be?"

Does playing detective give you the right to potentially offensive poetry?

"No. But I do it anyway." I said as I looked ahead. "Seriously though, what do you think it will do?"

Go find water, raid a plant food store? I'm not exactly the top expert on the priorities of walking plant life.

"Hmm…" I stared at the ground until an idea, one that I did not particularly care for, popped into my head. When it hit, I knew it was the right idea, and was further pushed into a nasty, dark mood that had been bubbling under the surface of my morning cheeriness all day.

I turned on my heel and began to walk as fast as I could in the direction I knew it would be.

Where are we going? Boston asked, surprised by my sudden change in pace.

"We're going to school." I said, picking up the pace even more.

I think I understand, but could you elaborate?

"Mum is at school. It seems to have a crush on Mum. So, common sense dictates that where there's smoke, there's fire, and where my mom is there is a walking tree bent on making her have a nervous breakdown."

So off to school we go.

"Off to school we go." I agreed.

After about twenty minutes of fast walking, jogging, and something in between that I got a few funny looks for, I was standing outside the track field, looking out across the football field at a small line of trees that lined the road on the left side of the side of the school, for shade for all of those days that were too hot to spend in the sun but too cold to stay inside.

"I wish I counted how many trees there were on this side." I grumbled as I skirted the track field and headed towards the line of trees. That seemed to be the best place to look, for obvious reasons.

So, when we find our traveling friend, what are we going to do with him? 

"Not sure it's a him. And why are you asking me? Did you honestly think I woke up this morning with a plan? I make this up as I go."

Oh that's reassuring. Remind me to sleep in the next time one of these situations comes up.

"You shouldn't pick up my bad habits. Ahh….there's something here that's not like the other." I said, examining the row of trees from ten feet away.

Meaning? I can't see if your collar is in the way.

I adjusted the collar. "Look, all of those trees are oaks. But that one on the end is a willow. I'm surprised I didn't pick up on that one sooner."

Me too. Maybe that's part of its charm?

"Let's hope not." I said as I walked down the line and stopped in front of the willow. Just to check, I counted the roots. Ten in all.

Yeah, if it wasn't the one I was looking for, there are some pretty freaky coincidences happening in this town.

"Hey. How are you doing?" I asked the tree. Not for the first time in my life, the nagging sense of feeling stupid set in.

The tree, predictably, did not answer.

"Nice weather we're having." I tried again. Sense of stupidity is rearing its ugly head now, but I've come too far to be turned away now.

"Alright, you should know that I know what you are, and I fully intend to do something about this situation." I'm not sure what yet, but I will do something about this situation.

The tree still did not move.

"Okay, you wanna play stupid? Well, let me tell you, two can play that game." I grumbled to myself.

You do realize the implications of that statement? Boston asked, on the verge of snickering.

I ignored him and pulled a lighter out of my pocket, rescued from Daddy's 'secret' stash of cigars. "Okay, since we can't seem to communicate like civilized people, we are going to communicate this way." I clicked the lighter to life and held it an inch underneath a waving frond.

"HEY YOU! Freeze right there!"

I looked over my shoulder to see a campus cop jogging towards me.

Not the reaction I was hoping for.

"Hand over the lighter and put your hands where I can see them, young lady. What do you think you're doing?"

"Uh…." My brain was absolutely blank. "Uhh….giving the tree a smoke? He keeps saying he wants to kick the habit but sometimes those urges, uh, just get too strong you know?"

That has to be one of the worst excuses in all the history of bad excuses. I can't believe I kept a straight face on that one. No, scratch that, I can't believe I let that one come out. It will take at least twenty minutes before I regain my self respect.

"You expect me to believe that, you little smart aleck?"

"If I say yes, will you take it at face value?"

"Alright, you are under arrest for being a pain in the ass." He fumed. Looks like this guy had a fairly short temper.

"Is that a valid crime, sir?" I asked curiously.

He did not take it well.

But before he could start telling me about what he thought of me and many things about me in general, I fond that I was right, and I was speaking to the correct tree.

Because it got up and walked off in plain sight of both of us.

Whatever Officer…Roberts, by way of his nametag, was going to say was lost in the strangled gasps he was producing. I was a little worried about him, actually, I didn't want him to have an epileptic seizure or something.

Luckily he just fainted.

"Remind me not to ask you to be my last line of protection." I commented as I walked around him and jogged after the swaying willow as it made a bee line for the parking lot. "Hey! Hey you! Do not run off when I'm trying to talk to you!"

The tree actually did a half turn, waved its branches threateningly, and kept going.

"Hey! At least talk in a language I understand!"

Apparently the tree has a short fuse too, because it turned around and charged right at me.

I yelped and ran away about twenty feet before stealing a glance over my shoulder. It had turned again and was heading back in its original direction.

I mentally kicked myself and ran back after it.

When I got close enough, I jumped and caught some of the whippy hanging branches and pulled back on them.

That got a good reaction in a very not positive sense.

It turned all the way around and bent down. The trunk turned snakelike and all of a sudden I was staring into the top of the tree, where instead of bark or more leaves I was staring into a maw of very large teeth. And on top of that were two big, diamond shaped ruby red eyes with brighter red pupils.

"Uh…Hi." I said, putting a smile on my face. The only reason I was able to pull that off was because my legs had turned to jelly and running away wasn't exactly an option. I was barely held up by the branches and my full weight was on them, making one side of the tree monster's head dip down.

It growled at me and the branches that weren't held down by me began to wave menacingly.

I was beginning to have second thoughts about the direction this (nonexistent) conversation was going.

"What do you want?" A blast of air that smelled vaguely like rotting vegetables hit me in the voice, and I had to turn my face so I didn't lose my breakfast this morning. Mom actually got doughnuts, so it was one of the few very good breakfasts I've had.

"You talk?" I asked after the smell got out of my nose. "That makes things easier. Why didn't you talk to me in the first place?"

"What do you want?" It repeated, showing a lot of teeth.

"I want….wait, let me think….Okay, sorry, forgot for a moment. I want to know why you've been following my mother around!" I said, regaining my composure and glaring into its face.

"I don't know what you speak of." Its voice was so deep I think it was making the dirt shift.

"You are following my mom and freaking her out. Why?"

"I do not understand."

"Well, that makes two of us. Look! She's right there!" I hissed, pointing at the parking lot. Mom was getting into the car, paying absolutely no attention to us.

Maybe she needs to get her eyes checked; situations like this one are a little hard to miss, especially if there was an unconscious cop not far away.

The tree froze, as if realizing something. It didn't move until Mom's car had left the parking lot and went in the opposite direction.

"That is truly your mother." The tree said slowly.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have come to threaten you with a lighter if she wasn't."

"And you have no siblings."

"Not that I know of unless there are some things Mum and Dad have been keeping secret from me."

The tree turned its head away from me as far as it could, and I distinctly heard it mutter something that sounded like a curse word.

I would have started laughing if I hadn't realized that untangling my arms from the branches was a little more difficult than at first glance. "What was that about?"

He looked….well, embarrassed, if trees can do that. "I made…a mistake, I think. Actually, this would explain the lack of results."

"Results? You know, you sound fairly intelligent for someone that looks made out of wood."

"And you are accepting for a half grown child."

"I resent that. I'm older than my height dictates, I'll have you know." I finally got loose from the branches and fell backwards onto my backside, sharp enough to realize that it would probably be sporting a bruise in the morning.

"I must go, I waste time, precious time." He turned and walked off. I stared after him.

"Hey. Hey, wait up! What results?" I started after him.

Be careful. He's bigger than you are. 

"Yeah, well, that's not a big stretch. Hey, wait up!" I yelled as I started to run to catch up.


	16. Chapter 16: Manny: Man eating Plant of Kentucky or Kansas

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"I don't think we're getting anywhere with him." Boston said as he gripped the back of my jacket. With no one around where we were walking, he had popped out of his marble to try to talk with the plant monster, but retreated after almost getting swatted in the nose.

"Yes we are." I said, panting slightly with the extra weight and my pace to keep up with the creature before me.

"Oh? And how is that? We've walked almost a mile and we've made almost no progress with our friend."

"I don't see you walking. And we've traveled a mile. It's progress."

"Are you all right? You're being stunningly optimistic."

"I know, I think I'm coming down with something." I said as I looked around. We have been walking for more than a mille, I think. Probably close to three. But I didn't want to tell Boston that, he might complain more.

"Hey, he's turning." Boston pointed ahead of me. Indeed, the plant life had turned left and had scuttled into a yard and was peeking over a six foot fence. I jogged in after it and stood next to the fence as it coiled it's trunk like a snake so only the eyes peeked over the fence.

"So, what's over this fence?" I asked conversationally. The tree glanced down at me and growled.

"You followed me."

"For the last hour and a half." Wow, for someone as big and scary as he's supposed to be, he really isn't all that observant. "So what's over here?"

"None of your business." It growled back.

"Fine, if you won't tell me, I'll figure it out. Hold on, Boston." I backed up a few feet, and took a running start to jump up. I made a lot of noise trying to get my head over the fence but I finally did, and got to look into a backyard at least twice as big as my own. "I think dad got screwed with our house. Everybody's back yard is bigger than ours."

"It's not as if you use the back yard anyway." Boston commented as he looked over with me.

"What are you doing?!" He hissed as he wrapped a branch around my leg. "Get down, he'll see you!"

"Who?" Boston looked around. "Oh, is that him? Little kid in a sand box?"

Immediately the tree ducked down, trying to make itself small.

"He doesn't look all that scary." I commented as I looked over to the little boy in the blue flannel shirt. He looked about eight, and he had sandy brown hair. He must be deaf if he didn't hear all the noise I was making. "So, what's the connection? Let me guess, the kid believes in you, right? "

"Not for long." The tree muttered sadly. I dropped down from the fence and landed without injuring myself, which I mentally patted myself on the back for.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He counts to ten and I disappear. Soon he won't believe in me anymore."

"Ahh, I was wondering about that."

"What?" I craned my head around to look at him. Boston twitched his whiskers.

"I've been noticing things. Usually, if a belief is to become a… nightmare, like I'm guessing you must be, with a child's interpretations of a man-eating tree, they are a lot more careful, unless they start to get desperate. Desperation usually comes hand in hand with disbelief. None of us, when we are granted bodies, want to go back to being some wandering shadow of a dream. So we do what we can to keep the belief alive. Am I close?" Boston directed the question at the large tree.

"Yes." The tree glared at us. "What do you want from me? You know I made a mistake. It was not the boy's mother I was scaring. I'm leaving her be. Now go."

"Why are you trying to scare the mom though?" I asked. If I was going to get the story, I might as well get all of it, right?

"Because the boy counts to ten and he has to leave, because that's the guidelines the boy set." Boston said. "The mother doesn't have that luxury. She doesn't believe in him that way. So, if he scares the mother, eventually the kid will hear about it, and have to believe in him. Just like you when your mother was scared."

"That's a tricky and dirty way of doing things." I frowned. "I can see where it makes sense though."

"You'll probably be seeing more of it as we meet more of my kind, especially ones that partner with children. Children are not the best choice."

"Only one around." The creature said sulkily.

"Why? Kids believe in a whole bunch of stuff."

"Kids grow out of it. Almost all of them. They grow up, and there's a point in their lives when they believe in nothing fantastical anymore. Anyone latched onto them at that point gets a very painful occurrence of changing back into something less than real. Some even die if they keep hold long enough."

"Wow. You guys kind of have the short end of the stick for life and everything, don't you?" I looked at the giant creature before me, and I could feel that nagging sense of pity. Here was a guy that was doing everything he could to be…well, I don't know who he's trying to be, but he's trying.

"Sometimes."

I chewed on my lip and watched the willow monster poke its eyes over the fence again.

"Say, Boston…can you guys, like transfer?"

"Of course. The only thing we need is the origin." He tapped the black marble. "And we can jump. But sometimes it doesn't work, and we always change to reflect the new partner. That makes it dangerous, and very possible for injury."

"What if I got hold of somebody that would believe in man eating trees? Would that work better?" The wheels had begun to turn in my skull.

"Maybe, but I don't see how you can find someone like that."

"You don't?" I said as the plan smoothed itself out. "Hey tree man. You know where your origin is?"

"Why should I tell you?" He grumbled.

"Well, for starters, I'm your best shot for not turning back into…whatever it is you guys turn into. Secondly, I have a plan."

"And what is this, 'plan'?" He sneered.

"Well, I have an acquaintance, whom after this will most likely be a friend. Anyway, my friend just loves freaky beasts like you. All I have to do is have your crystal thingy and give it to her, and you'll be okay, and you won't have to go around scaring people's moms and catching mine on accident. What do you say? No more worrying about counting to ten, no worries about disappearing? What do you say?"

"Why would you do that for me?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, I feel bad for you. Sides, it isn't like you'll be living with me. We'll both be happy. You'll be staying out of trouble and you won't have to worry about me trying to pull out your branches and following you around town."

He stood considering the offer.

"And that kid will finally be able to forget you and get on with his life without anyone dying in the process. It's a triple win situation. Quadruple, if it works out like I imagine it will."

"I took it back, I have it now." He resigned with a shake of his herbal head.

"Really…well, if you had it, why didn't you wander off and find somebody else?" I could feel a twitch coming on.

"It's not as easy as that." Boston whispered.

"Like hell it isn't. Hand over the crystal. We're going for a walk."

The walk would have been shorter if I hadn't realized I didn't know where I was going and had to check on the people that almost crashed on the way.

"I don't think we should use the phone booth books anymore. People tend to stare." Boston commented as we found the right street and walked down it trying to find the house. "Bet you we'll show up in the tabloids."

"Probably not. Who's going to believe an article about a tree, a floating cat, and a teenager trying to get direction from a phone book?"

"I didn't know you knew the last name."

"I picked it up at school. A last name like 'Twinkle' is kind of hard not to remember." I said as I stopped before a two story, white house with a white picket fence. The grass was really clean and green, surprisingly, even more so since the next neighbors' house was having trouble growing any. The windows were covered in blue curtains.

"Are you sure this is the place?"

"It can't be." I looked down at the slip of paper in my hands. "But this is the address. Let's knock."

None of us moved.

"Anytime now, fearless leader." Boston said with his chin on my shoulder. I steeled myself and opened the little gate and walked down the well tended walk. The tree monster stayed behind, peering over the fence at us.

The door was white, just like the rest of the house. I knocked on the door.

I knocked four separate times before the door finally swung open and this thin, old black woman peered back at me. She was wearing an old sundress that looked faded and well worn. She was a few inches taller than me, and her eyes were almost black. There were earrings in both of her ears and she looked me up and down as her hair in the ponytail swished with the movement of her head. The hair was speckling gray, but still seemed to carry small traces of blonde in it.

"Can I help you?" Her voice didn't crack at all, nor was it squeaky or high pitched. It was mellow, and her eyes were studying me very carefully.

"Hi…Is Nikki home?" I asked slowly, darting my eyes to the house and back to the woman.

"You a friend of hers?" The woman clicked her tongue on the top of her mouth as she looked me up and down.

"Sort of."

"Sort of don't cut it." She prepared to shut the door.

"Wait! I just wanna talk to her for a sec!"

"About what?" The old woman asked aggressively.

"Grandma? What's up?" Nikki's head appeared over her grandmother's shoulder. "Hey, it's you! What brings you here? I'm not having a movie day today or anything…"

I squinted up at her. "Actually I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh… It's okay grams, I think I can take her. Dude, I love your backpack. Where'd you get a cat with glasses? Where do you shop?"

"I am NOT a backpack." Boston hissed out before I could stop him.

Both of them stared at Boston, who quickly shrank behind my shoulder. I rubbed my eyebrow.

The grandmother puffed herself up. "What exactly…was THAT?!"

"He's related to what I have to talk to Nikki about." I stepped to the side so they could get a clear view of the plant just outside their gate.

"Oh good Lord." The grandmother slammed the door in my face.

"That went well." Boston chirped behind my shoulder.

"Please shut up Boston. Please." I just stood dumbly staring at the door.

There was a hushed argument and suddenly the door swung back open and Nikki bounded out, in shorts and a t-shirt that said 'I love blood' and a picture of some horror villain. She stopped about half way to the gate, turned around ran back and grabbed me by the elbow and dragged me with her. She stopped five feet from the gate.

"What, in hell, is that thing?" She said, pointing to him.

"That would be a ...a…you know, people keep explaining it to me but I don't think it's quite sunken in yet." I said back, a little off balance.

"He's a stray belief in need of a home." Boston sang.

"And what is that? Some demented furby?"

"I am NOT a furby or a backpack!" Boston sulked. "I'm a cat."

"Cats don't talk."

"I do!"

"And you're wearing clothes!"

"You expect me to run around in my birthday suit? I have more class than that!"

"You're like a stuffed animal!"

"I am not!"

"Alright, ALRIGHT! Pipe down you two, let's try not to make ourselves any more conspicuous than we already are." I grumbled. "Now, look, Nikki, I have to ask you to do something for me. See, this monster here needs a place to stay and a person to be pals with. Would you be willing to take him with you?"

"What am I going to do with a giant plant?!"

"Make your own horror movies?" I suggested, and watched as her face portrayed many conflicting thoughts. First was fear, then confusion, anger, shock(I would have thought shock was first), and the it settled into a sort of mischievous gleam

"You know, this could have its benefits. Still don't know where I'm going to put him."

"Well, never you fear." I pulled out the flat gold rectangle. "As far as I can tell, they adapt. Oh, and they aren't pets, remember that."

"I'm not allowed to have pets anyway, after the gerbil. Hey cool its gold!" She held up the gold crystal I gave her. "What is it…holy cow, he's spazzing!"

I looked over at the tree, which was rapidly changing appearance. The brownish bark turned dark black and whorls and swirls rushes across the bark. The leaves turned a dark blue but the willowish appearance of the tree stayed the same. The eyes of the creature went from black to brown, and the teeth became more subtle. The snake like trunk became even more flexible, and the roots merged till there were only four.

"Whoa…" Nikki had her mouth wide open as the tree creature shrank down until it was only eight feet tall. "You weren't kidding about adapting; this is just what I was imagining he should look like!"

"Good for you. Think it'll be okay if you keep him with you?"

"Does it clean?" The grandmother's voice commented behind us.

"Grams, can I keep him?! Please?! He's so cool!"

"We had this talk after the gerbil, didn't we?"

"Maybe he can keep the monsters that ate Elvis from getting out! Please! Please! I'll love you forever and ever! Please!"

Wow, she took this even better than I thought she would. After she got over the shock, Nikki was more than happy to take him.

Her grandmother gave it some thought. "Well, if he helps against the cellar…"

"Alright! Right on! Hey, what's your name?" She asked leaning over the fence.

"I don't have one."

"That won't do…Manny! Short for the Man-Eating Plant of Kentucky!"

"Aren't we in Kansas?" I asked, looking around.

"Right, Kansas, sorry. Hey, I got the perfect place for you upstairs, now that you're like, smaller and everything. And this gold thing, I'll make like a bracelet or something."

"Well, our work here is done, I believe. Maybe we should run back home to see if Mom's okay." I said to Boston.

"Oh no, you're staying here, I bet you got a whole story that I need to hear. I wanna know what exactly this guy is and where he comes from. Is he an alien?" Nikki asked catching my shoulder.

"Why don't you all talk about it over lunch, I'll make some peanut butter and jelly." Her grandmother walked back into the house, muttering something under her breath.

"Are you sure it's okay?" I asked.

Nikki pushed me to the house. "You just brought Manny-Come through the gate, Man, I'll stow you upstairs-and you think that eating lunch with us isn't okay? You're weird shorty. Besides, Grams making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It's her specialty. You can't miss out on that. Come on!"

Thank you all for the wonderful reviews of the last chapter, and please leave your comments on the way out.


	17. Chapter 17: Friday Horror Night

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'Oh god, oh no…HELP!'

'Chenise…Are you okay?'

'HELP! HELP!'

'Chenise! Where are you!?'

'AHHHHHHHHHHH!'

'NOOOO! CHENISE! I LOVE YOU! I'LL KILL YOU- YOU MONSTER!'

"OH! You owe me a buck. The girl bit the big one."

"You know, this movie really sucks." I said as I handed a dollar over to Nikki as she shoved a handful of popcorn in her mouth.

"It's supposed to. That's why it was in the bargain bin."

"I never seen somebody rent a movie for nothing."

"They would have given it to us if they thought they could get away with it. One less movie to worry about." She added the dollar to the five she had on the little coffee table.

Nikki and her grandmother are the only people that live in the white house with the perfectly tended walk and picket fence. Which gave Nikki the opportunity to claim the entire upstairs, that consisted of two room, a bathroom, and two closets, for her own. She converted the extra room into a Rec room, which consisted of her large screen T.V and several bookcases full of movies. There was also a ripped sofa and an old coffee table that precariously balanced several large bowls of popcorn and other snacks and several movies we went out and rented. The room itself was painted gray, though you couldn't see it with all the posters plastered over the walls, and the light blue curtains kept out a surprising amount of light, making the room incredibly dark.

"I bet you the next guy that dies is the geek." Nikki challenged.

"No way. It'll be the cheerleader girl that's been checking out the main cool guy."

"How much you wanna bet?"

I looked down at my two dollars on my side of the coffee table. "All of my savings."

"Right on, playing dangerous with your fortune." She popped some more popcorn in her mouth.

"I wonder how they managed to do all of these things that they're showing on this movie back in the sixties." Boston said, awed, as he sat in front of the table, leaning against a pillow that had been on the sofa at the beginning of the movie.

"They were creative. A lot of stuff is done with camera angles, and the art of good makeup."

"Except this movie." I interjected as I reached for more popcorn from the bowl in my lap, only to find it empty. "Hey, who ate my popcorn? Manny!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said as he brushed the popcorn from his branches guiltily. He was coiled up behind the sofa, peering over the back. And stealing my popcorn.

"Yeah right." I said, rolling my eyes as I swapped my bowl for one of the full ones.

"Hey, there's the cheerleader girl." Nikki pointed. "I have mixed feelings. I mean, I want to win the bet, but she looks like my arch enemy, so I want her eaten."

"Why do you hate the head cheerleader? Do you even know her name?"

"No. But she did the unthinkable."

"And what is that?"

"She told her friends that horror novels were stupid! And that movies were only cool if they had some 'hot' guy in them."

"You know, horror isn't everyone's bag."

"I know that! She also called me a psycho freak with bad hair."

I took a sideways glance at her hair. There were pencils in the back, keeping two tightly coiled buns in place. She was wearing a black tank top with green sweat and was furiously sipping from the straw she stuck into the juice box she was drinking from. Oh, and she had used a mirror to stencil an incredibly detail picture of Freddy Krueger onto her arm.

I shrugged and looked back at the movie. The cheerleader was gasping and looking around, tugging her pink knit sweater.

"Besides, I should be able to do my thing if she does hers."

"You are not going to let that go, are you?"

"Nope." She traded an empty bowl for a full one. "We're going to need more popcorn. We have two more movies."

"Cheerleader just got eaten." I said as I chomped down on my food. "Hey! You can see the monster's zipper!"

"Oh man. It's right there! Look at that! Wow, that's a big honkin' zipper." Nikki said as the movie changed scenes and showed main cool dude preparing a trap.

"How does he know what will kill the monster? He's seen it twice." I protested as I took two dollars from Nikki and added it to my pile.

"He's seen too much Scooby Doo, that's what it is."

"I saw an episode of Scooby Doo. I don't see what you guys see in it." Boston remarked as he grabbed a couple of chips and retreated back to his cushion.

"Yeah, it was the whole mystery thing. You know, how they managed to catch people they'd never seen before and somehow know who they are. It was a mystery we couldn't figure out, so we'd watch more and more till we discovered the secret." Nikki tossed her juice box into the trashcan we were using to keep the trash down.

"So it was a type of early brainwashing?" Boston asked with a silly grin over his shoulder.

"Close. Look, he got the monster!"

"He's going to pull the zipper and it'll be the President." I grinned.

"Probably." Nikki grabbed a new juice. "Look, he just electrocuted it! Where'd he get the electricity?"

"Same place he got the idea for the trap?" Manny suggested. He'd gotten a whole lot more laid back in the space of two weeks.

"Man this thing is so full of plot holes…it has to be the worst movie in existence." I said.

"Naw, I've seen worse. Much worse."

"No way."

"Way. I've seen movies that will make you want to throw yourself in front of the first movie billboard you see and hope the images of said movie aren't burned into your mind forever."

"Wow."

"Yeah. Hey, look, dramatic scene."

"He looks like he's laughing." Manny frowned.

"Probably snapped under the strain of being in this flick."

"Oh look, he's supposed to be crying."

"He knows this role ended his career."

"Harsh." Nikki shook her head.

I grinned. "Would you hire this guy again?"

"No. I wouldn't have made the movie in the first place."

"Do the police usually show up at the end of the movie?" Boston asked.

"Yes." Nikki and I said simultaneously.

"That was a short movie." Manny said as he swiped some popcorn from Niiki's bowl.

"A blessing in disguise." Nikki commented as she looked through the other movies. "Alright, which one, The Mummy's Ghost or the Curse of the Dead Zombie?"

"Isn't that last title a little redundant?"

"You picked it out." She pointed out.

"I did? Oh." I shrugged. "Eeny Meeny Miney Moe."

"Flip a quarter."

"Pick a number."

"Eyes-covered strategy."

"Alphabetical."

"Will you two just pick one?! Here, I pick the one on the left!" Boston said exasperatedly. "We're watching The Mummy's Ghost."

"Killjoy."

"I heard that." He grumbled as he replaced the movie.

This was exactly what happened every Friday for a grand total of two Fridays. It's a young tradition, but already one I really like. Bonding over snacks and bad movies.

Mom had been totally ecstatic when she found out I had a friend that I wanted to spend time with. The whole Friday Sleepover and movie night thing had been her idea. I'm not sure what to do when she begins to ask me to hold the Friday Night fun at our house, but I'm sure it'll be interesting.

"Roll that crummy movie footage, furby boy!"

"I am NOT a furby!" Boston growled as Manny ate the rest of Nikki's popcorn.

Yeah, real interesting.

Somewhere Outside Englesburg

"There goes another one."

"I hate earthquakes." The short man whined, adjusting his white shirt and the camera over his neck, and then patting down the white shorts, which were showing unflattering amounts of skin.

"These are just tremors." The taller man said as he pushed a branch to the side, his brown shirt catching on the spiky bark.

"Just tremors?! You mean it'll get bigger?" The shorter man's eyes went wide.

"Don't know. We're not over any faults. Maybe we'll just get the small shakes from the big one." The man stroked his well trimmed beard and allowed his gray green eyes to dart across the landscape. "Come on, we've only a few feet till we get there."

"Why couldn't we just park near it? What, are evil spirits going to take over our car?!" The shorter man ran his fingers across the thin blonde hair on his head.

"Maybe."

"Be serious."

"Doctor Lenshaw says that according to her records that demons were locked away in that temple."

"Superstitious mumbo Jumbo. No wonder they give all of her grants to someone else."

"Careful. Lots of people around here actually believe in the old tales surrounding these temples."

"Like what?" The shorter man scoffed.

"Ritual sacrifices. Monsters from beyond, reflected only in the imagination. Demons conjured by sorcerers. Of course, those are just fables, right?"

"Sure." The shorter man looked uneasily around.

"There it is. Start taking pictures."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't rush me." The shorter man began to take snapshots of the ruined temple.

The tall man looked around; looking for tracks or indications anyone had been there in the last few days.

A tremor, stronger than the previous ones, caused him to lose his balance, making him drop down into a crouch.

The short man let out a strangled yell as the camera flashed wildly. When the shaking stopped, the short man cursed.

"Look at that! A big chunk fell off the wall!"

The tall man glanced back over to see the short man taking pictures of a large chunk of rock that had fallen and rolled to the grass outside the temple.

"I'm not taking the blame for that one." The shorter man grumbled.

"We should probably get back to the car." The taller man said. "You never know what old spirit will take offense to something like this."

"I can't believe you're still going on about that stuff. It's not real!"

A low moan groaned through the forest, stopping both men in their tracks.

"Maybe." The tall man whispered. "But that didn't sound very human. We should go."

"Yeah, maybe we should." The shorter man hurried off the way they came, as the tall man followed hurriedly after.


	18. Chapter 18: Spiral into conflict

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"And what proof do you have of this? All you have are unfounded reports and rumors from half-educated village idiots." The professor sneered as he snapped his book shut.

"I object to you talking about the population that way. Just because they don't have an Ivy League degree doesn't mean you can look down on them. Besides, you cannot just ignore the talk, in just a week after these pictures were taken, creatures were being seen all over the place. Creatures that…should not be real."

"Words from your own mouth, Dr. Lenshaw- talk. Why should we be bothered with talk? I don't think anyone on the board will be interested in your so-called 'evidence'."

"You ass! Why aren't you even considering what I'm saying! If there is a problem we cannot let it escalate until it is no longer in our control!"

"Control yourself Doctor; I won't be spoken to like that." Professor Heralden snapped back. "Especially from some quack that can't even support her own research. I have to be present for a seminar, and I'll be late if I continue this conversation. Good day, doctor." He jerked his graying head in a sort of dismissal before turning on the heel of his hundred dollar shoes and walking briskly away. The other doctor glared as he walked away.

Jelica Lenshaw turned away from his retreating figure, struggling to keep her rage from spilling out. How dare he not listen to a word she had to say?! Arrogant bastard.

Jelica Lenshaw was not a particularly beautiful person, at least usually. She had been told a few times (when she actually took the time to have boyfriends or one night stands) that she cleaned up well. This was not one of those times. Her hair trapped in a suffocating bun, only allowing a few brown strands to fall across her eyes and nose, to be shoved away in an irritated manner. Large, block glasses settled on a severe nose, slightly magnifying the muddy green eyes.

She huffed down the hallway, making her way back to her office. Her ripped jeans caught on the protruding pole from a mop that was lying awkwardly across a janitorial cart. She had a quick fit that ended up with one pant leg almost completely severed.

She squealed in rage and kicked the mop away. Her long blouse would do nothing to cover the tear (which had spread to an extremely embarrassing place) and it was a cream topping on a day that, in the words she fully intended to impart to her pet rat, virtually sucked.

She managed to avoid human contact until she got to her office. She shut the door behind her, glanced around to make sure no one was there, and sunk to the floor. It was so hard being considered a radical, especially if one knew the truth! Things like rumors were just rumors, just like Heralden said, but even rumors may have a basis in fact. And she was almost certain that these 'rumors' were exactly that case.

"Oh, that's gotta hurt."

"Dude, I've seen girls kick butt better than that."

"That's because girls don't have to worry about those sensitive parts…oh crap, it's the principal!"

There was a struggle over the intercom as the two boys were unceremoniously kicked off the air. The intercom wasn't shut off though, so everyone could hear the severe scolding they were receiving.

"-Using the intercom for your own purposes—"

"We were trying to give a play by play on the guy's wrestling team! It's not our fault the other team is a sissy!"

"Yeah!"

"BE QUIET! Detention, both of you! And I will be calling your parents!"

"What? For showing support for our school? I don't understand the problem with that!"

"DO YOU WANT TO BE SUSPENDED?! What…why is that still on? Turn it—"

Mr. Redder blinked and then shook his head. "Well, not that we've been returned to our regularly scheduled program, who has questions?"

Just about every hand went up.

"About the lesson we just started working on."

Every single hand dropped down.

"Good. Talk amongst yourselves and try to keep it down." He went back to his desk and started to play solitaire.

I finished my set in silence as girls chattered around me and boys started a game of football with a paper triangle. After getting hit about three times, once straight in the forehead, I plucked the little triangle up and pegged at the boy that flicked it and got him in the nose. Pretty good aim, considering he was three rows ahead of me.

"OHHH! She got you!" One of his buddies crowed.

"You guys stop that or I'll send you to the office!" Mr. Redder barked. "If this is how you guys act on one free day we're not going to have anymore!"

"He always says that." One of the boys muttered. "He never follows through."

Today was a goof off day. In just about every sense of the word. Only a month and a half left in school, and we all should be working hard, but there were several sports all on the same three days and half of the school population was gone.

Including half of the teachers, so where there are substitutes, there lies the supreme law of high school. Goof off until the real teacher comes back.

The Intercom cackled back to life.

"Attention students, class will be cut short today due to problems with the water system, please do not run any water fountains or any of the like while you leave. Thank you. Buses will run early."

"All right! School's out!" A couple of the boys ran out of the room, only to come back half a second later to grab their things and run back out.

I packed everything up while grinning like an idiot. Whatever the problem was, I was grateful. No, ecstatic. Free day! Better yet, it was almost like a three day weekend! Excpet I would have to come back tomorrow if the plumbing was fixed. Oh well.

I walked out of class and almost bumped into Pepper, but before she could give me the 'I-know-you're-hiding-something' speech, I walked past her, heading towards the double doors that were freedom.

It was raining. Absolutely pouring outside.

"Aww, man. I didn't bring an umbrella. Better call Mom, she'll freak if I walk home in this." There were little phone booths on the side of the halls, and I squeezed in one and pulled out the proper change. All of the other kids had filed out to their cars or pulled out their umbrellas and left.

I slipped the change into the slot and dialed my number and waited for the phone to ring three times. The phone always rings three times before Mum picks it up.

I examined my fingernails as Mom picked up on the other line.

"Hello?"

"Hi mommy, School let out early, can you come pick me u—" I jerked my head around as something flitted just at of my vision.

"Yes honey. What happened?"

"Oh nothing, err, I mean, the plumbing got messed up and they're letting us out so they can fix it, I guess." I scanned the now empty hallway and didn't see anything.

"Okay, honey, I'll be the-" The line went dead.

I hung up and tried again. No dial tone.

"Crap." Maybe the lightning hit a phone line.

I hung up the phone and stepped out of the booth, but had to twist around when my bag got caught. I struggled with it, inwardly cursing about tiny booths and big bags.

There was a sharp pain on my wrist and I hissed angrily. I must have twisted it the wrong way. I finally got the bag jerked out and shouldered it, and froze when I noticed little red dots on the floor.

My wrist was bleeding. Not a lot. But it was still bleeding. Maybe it caught on a sharp edge on the booth or something, or a clip on my backpack.

Or the shadowy thing that just passed my eyesight again.

"Okay, Helen, time to run out in the rain, to hell with colds." I whispered as I walked quickly to the doors, not wanting to look back.

I would have been fine if I hadn't seen the reflection in the door windows. The image was distorted, but I could tell it wasn't anything human. Glowing gray eyes tend to be a big tip off.

I grabbed the handle of the door and waited until the time was just right. That time being when I could feel rancid breath on the back of my neck, which was right now.

I opened the door as hard as I could while spinning to the side, catching whatever it was right in the face.

Something hit my hand as I ran out of the building into the rain, but I ignored it. I slipped and slid on wet concrete and gravel as I scrambled away from the doors.

"Hey, HEY! Stop kid, what's your problem?!" A gray haired police officer caught me by the arm.

"There's, there's some sort of freaky monster in the building!" I tried to get loose, but he had a tight grip on my elbow.

The older police man, one of several campus cops (I've almost met the entire set.) looked back at the doors and looked at me. "There ain't nothing there." He pointed at the doors.

I looked behind me. There was nothing at the doors.

Figures.

Loud honking made us look over at the road, where my Mother was looking at us with raised eyebrows.

"My mom."

"Well, you go on then. Oh, and hon, whatever the upper classmen gave you, pass it by next time. I don't want to talk to you about this again."

What?! He thought I was on drugs?!

I almost ran over to my Mom's car and got in.

"What was that all about?" She glared at me.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."


	19. Chapter 19: Too Close to Home

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"Stop it! Leave it alone!"

"You keep moving and I'll leave a hairball on your pillow. You stop it!" He hissed back in a hushed whisper.

He had my arm outstretched and was trying to unwrap the bandage Mom had put so meticulously around my injury.

"It hurts!"

"You are such a baby! What, do you drop down and die when you get a paper cut?"

"No!"

The bandages unraveled quickly, and Boston pulled off the cloth patch Mom had put over the cut (I think she may have overreacted, especially when she saw it and I couldn't give her a good reason as to how I got it.) and exposed my wrist.

"Eww…" I said, staring at the cut with morbid fascination. The cut was lined with green and purple. "I think I've been poisoned. I don't feel weird or anything though. Little scared, not weird though."

"I'd say poison was a good bet. But if it looks like this…did it look like this a couple minutes ago?" He asked tensely.

"No, it just looked like a scrape when Mom bandaged it."

"Curious." He muttered, looking down with glittering eyes. "Very curious."

"Am I going to die?" I asked, feeling a little sick. I couldn't tell if tat was from nerves or foreign substance.

"I don't think so."

"Oh, gee, thanks. That's really reassuring!" I snapped.

"I've never seen anyone react to this like you do."

"What?! You've seen this stuff before? Where? When? How? Is there anything I've missed?"

"Probably the why? I saw it a really long time ago, okay? And count yourself lucky, the last time I saw this sort of injury, the person with it was in a coma. It's not a fatal poison. Usually."

"I'm hearing a little lack of conviction here." I glared at him.

"It kinda depends. Did you get a look at it?" He began rewrapping the bandage.

"No, I was a little preoccupied with getting away."

"That was probably the better choice. I'm a little shady on what happens after the whole coma thing, but I'll go to lengths to say that it probably isn't all that nice."

"Why are you so calm about this?" I growled.

"I've always been a very levelheaded person. It makes flying off the handle have a lot more significance when I do it."

"Gee." I said sarcastically.

The phone rang downstairs in the hallway and a few seconds later my Mom yelled up that a friend of mine was on the phone.

"I'm coming! We are going to have a big talk about this in a few minutes."

"Don't do anything strenuous."

I ran down the stairs and took the phone from my Mom, wincing when I brushed past her with bandaged wrist. It had begun to hurt, and not in an 'it's just a scratch' sort of way.

"Hello?"

"Helen! Helena, it's me, Nikki. Dude, something, its, there's this kid, lives down the block, and there's this thing—" Her voice sounded frantic, and I could hear loud banging in the background, and what sounded like a howling dog.

"—And it came up through the cellar, gram's freakin' out, Coming to get Elvis, dude, it's like Freddy on steroids, I've seen it."

"Hey, cool it, what's going on over there, do you have a dog?"

"It's like we're really big lights and it's a moth, Manny's smacked it around a bit, but it's pissed, and I don't know what to do, it keeps coming back for us!"

"What? What keeps trying to come back for you?" I was beyond worried. Nikki may be a little freaky sometimes, but she wouldn't fake something like this.

"I'm telling you, there is a freaking monster in our cellar, and—"

CRASH!

"What the-" I turned towards the kitchen where the source of the noise had just come from.

"AIIIIIIEE!"

"MOMMY!"

"Helen?" Nikki's voice yelled over the phone. "What's going on!?"

I dropped the phone and ran into the kitchen. Mom was backed up against the wall, staring wide eyed at something that was struggling to get through the kitchen sink window.

It was big, but thin. And ugly. There are no words to describe how ugly this thing is. It was mottled black and brown with three misshapen eyes that I could see, and one outstretched arm that was gripping the counter, trying to pull the rest of the body through the window. It opened its mouth and a stink of rancid, rotting air hit me.

I promptly lost my breakfast. I think part of dinner came out too.

The noise caught the monster's attention and it stopped trying to pull itself through the window and swung its arm towards me. It would have fallen short by several feet, but it extended and caught me by the neck and pulled me into the kitchen and threw me against the fridge.

White hot pain lanced through my injured wrist when I landed on it. I yowled in pain and the monster made some sort of guttural noise and claw more of itself in through the window.

"Helena!" My mother was beside herself. I really didn't have a clue about what to do either.

The fingers were still circled around my throat, and even though they were brittle and thin as straws, it was still plenty strong, and nothing I could do could pry them off.

"GET OFF OF HER!" Boston leaped out of seemingly nowhere and latched himself onto the monster's face, trying to claw the nasty, malformed eyes out. The monster started to voice a high pitched scream, and Boston started yowling like an alley cat cornered by a Doberman.

The fingers were still around my neck and were getting tighter, as if ensuring I couldn't get away while it dealt with Boston. I was having a hard time breathing and my hands were searching for everything and anything that could be used as a weapon.

"LET GO OF HER! I'LL RI P YOUR EYES OUT YOU BAS—"

BOOM!

The sink exploded, taking a little bit of monster with it. The monster was in screeching in pain and swung it's head so violently that Boston flew off into the hallway, yowling.

I heard the distinct sound of a rifle being cocked and another loud boom. I covered my ears and closed my eyes before the third and fourth ones went off and sat very still even after the fingers slid from my neck and I could breath again.

A hand grabbed my wrist (the uninjured one) and pulled it away from my ear. I opened my eyes and saw Mom with gunk on her dress holding a huge rifle staring back at me, concerned. "Baby, are you okay? We're all fine now, Mommy killed it, it's not going to hurt you." She pulled me in for a hug. "Mommy killed the thing that tried to hurt you."

I felt like crying. My throat hurt like it had been trapped in a vice. My wrist hurt bad. And I just found out my Mom can shoot a gun. A rifle no less. I didn't even know she knew what bullets were. And Boston wasn't here.

Boston!

"Mom, the cat, did you shoot the—"

"No, baby, I didn't shoot your little friend. He's standing next to the doorway, I didn't hurt him."

"How did you know Bost—"

"Honey, you can only talk to someone in the attic for so long before your mother figures these things out. I may look like Housekeeper Betty, it doesn't mean I think like her. Besides, "She sniffled a little and rubbed her nose, "the floors are actually pretty thin, I can hear what you say even when you whisper."

"Oh." I looked up at the ceiling. "Uh…what I said up there, uh, about your cooking and stuff…"

"Forget it. I'm just glad you're okay."

"Mrs. Harrick? Do you still have a few extra bullets in that gun?" Boston asked timidly from just outside the kitchen.

Mom turned and looked at him. "I have lots of bullets. Why? Are there more outside? Honey, go up to your room—"

"Not outside here. But someone else needs help." Boston looked at me pointedly.

The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. "Nikki! Mom, we have to drive over to Nikki's, she got one at her house!"

Mom pulled me up with her as she got up and put the gun into my hands. "Take that out to the car, I'll get my ammunition and meet you in the car. Hurry up, we don't want to waste time."

I ran out to the car in my bare feet, Boston following me a half minute later holding the choker. We both sat in the passenger seat, he on my lap and me buckled in and holding the gun.

Boston flicked his ears back and looked up at me. "Did you know these things about your mother?"

Mom slammed the door holding a box of ammunition in one hand and her keys in the other, running to get into the driver's side.

"No. No I did not."


	20. Chapter 20: Guts, Guns, and Hodge Podge

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The wheels screeched as they slid on the slick, slippery road in front of Nikki's house. The rain was pouring down. Mom shoved the door open and I fumbled out of my seat belt and got out on the other side, clumsily handing her the gun as Boston clung tightly to my back with his claws digging into my shoulders. I followed Mum as she resolutely marched to the door. Inside there were muffled thumps and yells. Mom checked the door, and finding it open, pushed it in and rushed inside.

I followed after a half second. Better to let the person that has the gun and good aim to go first.

The house was a war zone. I kept close to my Mother as she stepped over broken pieces of furniture and ducked under fallen pieces of ceiling.

A keening scream and what sounded like busting furniture made the house rock. My Mother made sure the shotgun was loaded and made for the source of the noise.

It came from the cellar door under the stairs, which was being blocked by a large man eating tree, a dog that was purple, Nikki who had a cut across the cheek and was looking angry, and the remains of her coffee table.

"Nikki!" I yelped from behind my mother. She looked up and her face brightened.

"Helen!"

"Out of the way, I'll blast the two faced little bastard to Kingdom Come!" Nikki's Grandmother hurried down the steps holding some sort of old firearm. She stopped when she saw my Mom. "Who are you?!"

"This is my Mom, Mrs. Twinkle." I called. Nikki's Grandma sucked her tooth for a second.

"You know how to shoot that thing?"

"For years." Mom said, cocking the shotgun.

"Nice. Is that a twelve gauge?"

"GRANDMA!" Nikki bawled as the door was thumping. "Stop talking about guns and just shoot the damn thing!"

"Don't use that sort of language! Now MOVE!"

Nikki threw herself off the door and got tangled with Manny as he jumped back. The purple dog ran behind me.

The door exploded open and Ugly's cousin (provided it was not his brother) came barreling out. I got a split second vision of a seven foot tall, one eyed, very thin monster with reedy hands that sprouted into gleaming sharp claws, before gunfire went off drowning out the monster.

Three shots from Mom's gun hit it straight in the chest, two from Nikki's Grandma in the head.

The worst part of the entire scene was that it didn't fall over right away. It made a move towards a hissing Manny as he stood between it and Nikki. It never got there though, and fell in a heap on the carpet, claws still stretched towards them.

No one moved for almost five minutes. The first one to make a noise was the dog that started whining. I looked behind me to see it cowering behind a ruined entertainment center.

"Crazy monsters bustin' into my house, you got what you deserved, you little rat." Nikki's Grandma swore at the monster and I dimly registered that I didn't know she had a gun.

Well, if my mom has a gun, why not sweet little old crazy grandmas?

"Everyone okay?" Mom lowered her gun, which she had still been pointing at the corpse of the monster.

"No." Nikki groaned. "I just got chased around my house by the Nightmare on my Street. My Grandma just blew its head off. There's a purple dog in my house, a little kid freaked out upstairs, and I feel like ice cream."

"Always talking about you. Go see if that kid's okay." Nikki's Grandmother ordered.

"I'm okay!" A voice said from the stairs. I looked up to see a kid in a backwards baseball cap and patched clothes looking down at me. He was wearing jeans that looked like he fell in the mud more than once, an old denim jacket, and a shirt with a tear under the collar. He only looked about ten. His face was rounded and his eyes were big and expressively frightened, even though he kept his voice level. His hair was brown like his eyes, but it was messy and ill-kept. He looked down tentatively. "Is it dead?"

"Can't get much deader than five bullets."

Nikki hauled herself up with Manny's house and stepped gingerly over the dead body. "Tell it like it is, Grams." Then she hurriedly ran into the kitchen. Manny lumbered after her.

"You, boy, go into the kitchen with my granddaughter. You too Helena. Your momma and I are gonna have a talk about what to do about this mess."

I skittered away off to the kitchen and out of earshot. There, Nikki was calmly opening up a carton of Moose Tracks Ice cream, a name I had not heard of.

"You know, this ice cream's really good. It's got stress relieving properties. I eat it when I have a fight with someone at school, usually about a half cup, then I feel all better." She looked up at me, looking harassed. "I don't think half a cup is gonna do it this time."

"Well, I don't feel like eating, so you take that whole carton yourself." I said, swallowing a little. I stopped that immediately. Swallowing hurt.

"Don't do anything stupid Hodge Podge." The boy's voice whispered as he walked in. The purple dog had his tongue lolling. It was medium sized, and a bizarre shade of purple that hurt the eyes.

The boy's eyes darted to Nikki, who was calmly and systematically mutilating the ice cream before she ate it, to Manny who was watching her and curling his leaves this was and that, looking threatening even though he didn't realize it, to Boston who was now hovering in the air above my head, ears pricked and eyes glittering, to me and the soggy state of my clothes, the bandaged wrist, and the nasty purple bruising around my neck.

"Maybe we should go." The boy whispered to his dog.

"Maybe you shouldn't." Boston said reprovingly. "It's rude to leave without thanking the ones that protected you."

"You didn't do a whole heck of a lot." The boy said back rudely.

"Brat."

"ACHOO!" The dog, whom I take to be called Hodge Podge, sneezed his head off.

Literally.

"Holy-" Nikki jumped onto the table as the purple head rolled by with the tongue lolling out.

"Cool." The boy crawled on his hands and knees until he got to the head and drug it back to the still standing body. "Auntie said some people's heads roll off when they aren't attached. Guess you proved her right, Hodge."

He stuck the head back on the neck and screwed it in like I would screw in a light bulb. I just watched in a sort of bewildered haze as the head was twisted fully (and securely) back on.

"Dogs with heads falling off, that's gonna take another pint." Nikki muttered.

"It's not his fault; he just…falls apart sometimes."

"ACHOO!"

The dog went from bright purple to a speckled black and green. And poodle sized with bear like fur.

"He also changes colors?" I said, more calmly than I should have. Shock was probably wearing off. Nikki was cross legged on the table with a spoon in her mouth, determinedly looking at the wall. I would have expected her to be a lot more at ease with this, but I guess everyone's different.

"And shape. And species. And everything. Sometimes he just has to fall to pieces and I put him together like a puzzle."

I considered this. It was creepy. But to a kid…it actually sounded kind of cool. I told him so.

"Yeah, it's better than some cat." He said, shooting a glare at Boston.

"Did you hear that?!"

"Break it up. My throat hurts and I don't want to yell at you two. He has his high points. Granted, he isn't a living jigsaw puzzle, but he's special too." I said hoarsely as a twinge of pain came from a swallow I forgot that I wasn't doing.

The little boy didn't look like he believed me.

"So what's your name, kid?" Boston asked sulkily.

"Justin. Justin Kase."

"Justin Kase?" Nikki tittered. "I get it!" Then she laughed. I wondered if ice cream wasn't being a detriment.

"Yeah, you and every other yahoo." Justin said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Nikki stuck her tongue out at him. Just then Mom and Nikki's Grandma came walking in, Mom looking a little pale and soaked, with sweat and rain water.

"Alright, there's going to be a little powwow. Girl, you get your feet off that table this instant." Grandma Twinkle shook her finger in her granddaughter's direction. Nikki hastily jumped off, slapped the top on the ice cream carton, and threw it back into the freezer.

"First and foremost, Justin Kase, you had better have a good reason as why you showed up at this house twenty minutes before that thing came outta my cellar."

"I just wanted to make a phone call. I missed the bus, nobody else was home."

"The bus stop is a half mile away. It's surrounded by stores. Don't lie to me boy."

"Hodge led me here. He kept grabbing my jacket and freaking out when I stopped."

Hodge Podge rolled his tongue out and managed to look like an idiot.

Grandma Twinkle just glared at him. He rolled his tongue back in and skittered his green furred body under the kitchen table.

"Now, we're gonna have a little talk about that thing I just shot. It just dissolved into sand. Now, before I share my house anymore with you creatures, you better tell me what the hell that is all about." She fixed all of us, even me and Nikki, with an evil eye. "Right now."


	21. Chapter 21: Explaining the disaster to come

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We were all looking at each other. Grandma Twinkle sat at the head of the table, gun set in front of her as she fixed us with her no nonsense eyes. Mom was beside me, holding my hand under the table. It was reassuring, and for once I didn't mind being treated like a child. After this little episode, I think I shall be quite a bit closer to my mother.

Justin was sitting across from me with Hodge in his lap. The dog periodically lost a body part which Justin deftly caught and set right. Apparently he had a lot of skill with it. Nikki sat across from her grandmother, Manny swaying behind her. Boston was floating up near the light fixtures in the ceiling.

"Since I know that we grown ups and you kids probably know nothing about the sand man, I suggest you fairy tale things start talking." Grandma Twinkle said severely. She fixed her eyes to the ceiling. "Starting with you, cat."

"Why me?" Boston asked guardedly.

"Because you have half an idea of what's going on. Don't look at me that way. Patricia here told me about what you say when you think you're alone with Helena. Spit out the rest, cat."

Boston wavered in the air, uncertain. Then he descended to the center of the table and smoothed out his jacket. "I'm afraid you've caught me at a bad time." "I don't care if your clothes are mussed cat-"

"I wasn't talking about that," Boston interrupted hastily. "I meant that if this had happened later, I may have been able to tell you more. As it is now, I can only give you a bare bones explanation. And I think I may be missing a femur or so, so you'll please bear with me." He scratched his chin with a claw before continuing. "As far as I can tell, they're .it's difficult to explain, the closest I can get are puppets."

"Puppets? Who's the puppet master then?" Nikki asked, hands propping her chin up.

"I can't tell. And, they're not exactly puppets, more .it's difficult to explain. Several hundred plus years of sleeping does fog the mind. I do know they have a purpose beyond what they've been doing. Which leads me to believe that there may be no one pulling the strings."

"Then why did they attack us?" I asked.

"They are drawn to you just as myself and the others are. And those that have been bonded with one of my kind become more noticeable, like beacons."

"Great. I have a sign plastered on me that says attack me, I'm friends with the personifications of belief'?" Nikki said, crossing her arms. "I don't think I signed up for that."

"Something must have happened to the seal that kept us away from the world. A little break lets us loose. More allows them to escape. More than that will spell disaster."

"And this isn't a disaster?" Nikki asked gesturing to her house.

"You are still alive. The puppets fell to bullets. This inconvenience. Believe me, it could have been much worse. The dreams of yesterday shape the monsters that attacked you this day." He slowly blinked. "And some of them were scary. The ones you saw today, dangerous though they are, are almost docile compared to some that I've seen."

"Then you have to leave." Mom said abruptly.

"Mom!"

"Quiet Helen. He already said that he's putting you in danger just by being with you, and that this, THIS was an inconvenience! I will not have you killed by one of these things!" She shot Boston a look that he quickly withered under.

"To be honest Mrs. Nesmond," he said when he found the courage to speak, "It won't matter if I leave or not. They are drawn to her all the same. Like I said, they come to those that attract us, and she has something that no one else here has. It shines. My leaving won't dull that." He flicked his ears back and looked at her stubbornly. "She picked me up. She saw me when no one was supposed to. That has to be something, doesn't it?"

"Why are you asking her?" Grandma Twinkle raised an eyebrow.

"I forgot the whole mythology, history, whatever, alright? Give me a break." Boston laid his ears back against his skull. "Like I said, being alone in a temple, asleep for most of the time tends to make you just a little bit forgetful."

"You were asleep?" Manny asked suddenly. "I remember being awake."

" not exactly asleep, but we all get the point. It was a long time ago!"

"You knowingly put my daughter in danger?!" My mother was beginning to puff up, a sure sign of trouble.

"She was not in danger at the time! We were the only ones loose; there was no danger for her!"

"Did you know it could happen? Did you even care?"

"Mom! That is unfair and you know it! Stop it right now!" I slammed my wounded hand on the table, ignoring the pain. "Were you not listening? They would come after me anyway; it doesn't matter now that he's here or not. We can't help that now. All we can do now is prepare ourselves for the inevitable." The silence embarrassed me but I didn't sit back down. When I shot a glance at Boston, he was appraising me with glittering eyes.

"You're right." Mom said after awhile. "I'm sorry, Boston."

"Don't mention it."

"Can we block them out or something? Keep them away?"

"Not really. But death is a good a deterrent as any. They'll be wary to approach when they know one of their own has died there."

"Fine. I'm going home, I have a kitchen to clean."

"What about me?" Justin asked. "They're gonna come after me too, right? What do I do?"

Boston twitched his tail then turned to Grandma Twinkle. "Is that sand still out in the hall?"

"What's sand going to do?" Justin asked.

"Give the illusion that something died. You should be able to make a charm of it. If you wear it like a necklace, you should scare them enough to get away if one does happen to show up."

"Might as well make one for everybody." Grandma Twinkle muttered as she got up to leave.

"Might as well." Boston said in a low voice, with a great deal less conviction.

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I didn't like it.

The bottle was full of gray sand, and it made me sick. It was like an old conquerors that wore the body parts of their enemies to frighten people. Wasn't this exactly what it was?

Puppets. Ugly puppets. The only reasons to make those kinds of puppets are as weapons of fear and terror.

The rain was hitting the window hard. Some lucky break, nobody was home when the gunshots went off except the deaf people across the street, which was a little too convenient for me. Almost as if it had been waiting for the right moment, which makes me wonder how long it had been there.

And Boston.

Boston is downstairs with my mother, probably hovering to figure out what to do and bringing Mom up to date with all that he knows. Heaven forbid he should tell me such things.

But would I really want to know? I mean, if he looks at this little episode as a minor setback or something, then what the heck was it like the last time he was wandering around? And what was he doing at the time when this was all happening to know so much? I sincerely doubt he and Manny or Hodge Podge were on the same social ladder. And something tells me he isn't as nice as I though him to be. There's something in his eyes that have begun to slip out, and only now was it made so blatantly obvious.

I put the bottle of sand carefully on the dresser and sat down on my bed. Justin got a hold of his aunt and was being driven up to his area of Kansas tomorrow, with his little bottle of joy as well. Nikki and his Grandmother were going with him. Which means that I'll be alone in the house tomorrow. I'm not going to school with a bruised neck. People will think my mother beats me.

Of course she does shoot a gun, and I bet if they knew that they'd think anything was possible.

"You realize your mother wants me to wash dishes?! I'm a cat, I hate water!" Boston complained as he floated in. "That woman is evil, I-" He stopped when he realized I wasn't actually paying attention to him.

He floated until his nose was touching mine. "What is it Helen?"

I looked into his eyes. They didn't glitter. They were clear and slightly worried.

I frowned. He jerked back, surprised.

"Who are you? Really?" I asked seriously.

"Really?" He twitched his ears. "I don't remember."

"That's an excuse that's getting real annoying."

"It's the only one I have, I'm sorry. I can't magically bring the memories back, Helen. They come back or they don't."

"I know, it's just that.I'm confused about where we stand now Boston."

"Neither of us is standing. I am floating, and you are lying down on the bed."

"Don't be asinine."

"It's one of my better traits."

"I know."

He floated down to lay on his back beside me. "I can't tell you what happens now. You may not like all the things that happen in the not so distant future. Things may get difficult, hard to follow, and you may see things that will haunt you for the rest of your life, whether it is horrible or horribly humiliating. You can't escape from that now, but you can rise above it."

"Boston?"

"Yes?"

"When you said I had something, what did you mean?"

"Not everyone can simply scoop up an origin and walk off with it. Those are dangerous things, you know."

"Mom picked you up."

"Because I knew it would bring me to you. But that isn't the point. I didn't change. You handed off Manny like you were trading a baseball card. That's not supposed to happen. Conversions can be debilitating, even deadly. In your hands, Manny didn't so much as lose a leaf. That's something. I'm not sure what it is yet, but it's something." He yawned.

"Is that it?" I tried not to sound disappointed.

He looked over at me. "Where there is one flaw in the master design there are more. We'll just have to sit back and wait for it."

"The master design?"

"Fancy way of saying 'the way things used to be'. Stick with me, kid, and you'll find out all of the cool phrases." He elbowed me in the ribs.

I snorted with laughter. "My life is complete."

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